22 | hans overvliet | Syrian skies [3,672 days] | May 5, 2022

Syrian skies [3,672 days] | May 5, 2022 40 clouds as souvenir cards for KART | David Delifiora – Australia This art-series for KART is part of the work in progress DISTANT SUFFERING. Syrian skies was the starting point of the series; at the moment it touches May 5, 2022.

This day we remember the ending in 1945 of the five years Nazi-occupation of the Netherlands . . .

This art-series for KART is part of the work in progress DISTANT SUFFERING. Syrian skies was the starting point of the series; at the moment it touches May 5, 2022.

This day we remember the ending in 1945 of the five years Nazi-occupation of the Netherlands . . .

Works within Syrian Skies:

Syrian skies [1,000 days] | April 8, 2014 12 clouds on A4, Art Space Willem3, Flushing - the Netherlands

Syrian skies [2,000 days] | October 21, 2016 12 painted clouds, Goes, - the Netherlands

Syrian skies [2,238 days] | May 17, 2017 12 clouds on A4 for Studio 7 in Flushing - the Netherlands

Syrian skies [2,936 days] | March 26 – April 26, 2019 9 painted clouds in nine wooden frame, each 97,9 x 66,3 x 4,5 cm.

Watermans in London, United Kingdom

Syrian skies [3,333 days] | May 31, 2021 12 clouds on A4 for Luxfer Open Space, Česká Skalice - Czech Republic

Syrian skies [3,672 days] | May 5, 2022 40 clouds as souvenir cards for KART, David Delifiora – Australia

Since 2013, by means of the ongoing art-series DISTANT SUFFERING, the Dutch artist Hans Overvliet investigates the role of the media in their representation of (military) violence. This, in the context of themes as perception, memory and identity formation.

Overvliet uses a various range of media, symbols and codes, bringing together dichotomies like beauty and violence, refinement and brutality, the sublime and the vulgar.

Aspects of power, politics, exclusion, censorship and the connection between artist, art-work and viewer infiltrate his multifaceted conceptual oeuvre. The language-image relationship and references to (art) history are always present.

As a reporter, Overvliet was an eyewitness to the events in the Middle East during the 1980s. Of course these experiences resonate in DISTANT SUFFERING. The action driven perspective that is included in the approach of Hannah Arendt’s non-paternalistic empathy is the performative part of the series distant suffering.

Elements of DISTANT SUFFERING were exhibited in the Netherlands, Belgium, Pakistan, Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden and England.

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

Next to his artwork he is, together with his wife Willy van Houtum, the founder and every day guardian of the 27-year old space for contemporary art: ruimteCAESUUr. www.hansovervliet.com