About distant suffering

Hans Overvliet, since 2013 investigates the role of the mass media with regard to reporting on (military) violence and the fading memories of violence by means of an ongoing art-series: distant suffering.

As a reporter, Overvliet was an eyewitness to the events in the Middle East during the 1980s. These experiences resonate in the oeuvre of distant suffering.

The titel of the project is taken from Luc Boltanski’s book Distant Suffering, Morality, Media and Politics.

Overvliet employs an apparently controversial strategy: that of poetic images, inspired by the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822): Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

Martha Jager , Curator Vleeshal: The dedication to art as a relational verb is central to Overvliet's work. On the one hand, the balance between poetry and criticism is special, so that the work never becomes bitter or pedantic, while at the same time the dialogue with the viewer is actively maintained. It is a tender form of activism that moves and urges action and also continuously questions the role of art.

Elements of distant suffering were exhibited in the Netherlands, Belgium, Pakistan, England, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Lebanon, the U.S.A. and Sweden.

Hans Overvliet was born in Leiden in 1952; he lives in Middelburg and works in Vlissingen in the province of Zeeland in the South-West of the Netherlands.

Next to his art-work he is, together with his wife Willy van Houtum, the founder and every day guardian of the 29-year old space for contemporary art: ruimteCAESUUr.

www.hansovervliet.com curiositas@zeelandnet.nl