hans overvliet | distant suffering | for phillippe

hans

suffering | selection

DISTANT SUFFERING II anatomyofacloud[gaza] 82,2 x 84 cm. - 2014

DISTANT SUFFERING VI i.d.ofasharedkey#1 2015

selection from in total 215 old, cleaned tin cans an imprint of a key, pressed into plaster in the shape of a gold bar

Palestinian refugees whom I met from the early eighties, to the present day, keep up the keys of their homes from which they were ex-pelled from 1948 on by the state of Israel. The current generation Palestinians carries all kinds of keys and key chains as jewellery.

In 1991, for the first time I read the book Pity the Nation, Lebanon at War by Robert Fisk1. The chapter "The Keys of Palestine"2 associating me with my own experiences, I always remembered.

The artwork consists of 215 scoured biscuit tins, of which I removed the enamel and / or paint. Inside the tins are a print of a key, pressed into plaster in the shape of a gold bar. The can functions also as a container of the memories of my own childhood storing my treasures. It is also the metaphor of the forgotten memory [with forgotten postcards, far forgotten coins from countries visited, etc.] that everybody has tucked away.

DISTANT

SUFFERING VII-VIII-IX

‘out-lines’ of filing cabinets, each 134 cm. x 49,5 cm. x 71 cm. [ h x w x d ] each filled with 1,000 images, printed on sheet – 2016 a commentary on global warming, war and destruction

Hoto courtesey of ©2017

Anne Breel

DISTANT SUFFERING XVIII | defacingpalestine|thenakba 1948- 2018

I spent 40 days - starting April 24, 2018 – charting 417 destroyed Palestinian villages / towns with the name, both in Latin and in Arabic script, the geographical location, the number of inhabitants in 1948 and a photo of the remains of that village / town. I poured that information into 417 obituaries and stored them in a steel archive cabinet. To complete the installation, I made a video of my laptop screen, which shows all the actions I made and which shows all the sources I used that led to each individual obituary. click here for the catalog

DISTANT SUFFERING XX1 | [ difference and repetition ] i.d. of a shared assemble game set - 2019 click here for the catalog photos ©Lukáš Jasanský | courtesy by Luxfer

Luxfer Open Space | Czech Republic – 2021

Cultuurcentrum Brugge | Belgium - 2022

Artist-house Slipvillan | Långholmen / Stockholm2022

Supermarket Art Fair | Stockholm | Sweden - 2022

DISTANT SUFFERING XIX0 | dissectionofadisappearingcloud\workinprogress nine parts

total dimensions work | 287,7 x 192,9 cm. | March 26 - April 26, 2019

Cloud, actually painted with rubble from the spot in Gaza where annihilated Mishal Cultural Center was situated, in extremely diluted East-Indian ink & Arabic gum on Simili Japon, 225 grs. 96,0 x 65,0 cm. in nine wooden frames, each 97,9 x 66,3 x 4,5 cm.

Total dimensions 287,7 x 192,9 cm.

Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza - obliterated in a bomb strike by the Israel Defence Forces on August 9, 2018 with the Watermans Arts Centre in London. Radical Immersions in parallel with the Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts [ D.R.H.A. ] conference | 2019. The exhibition was curated by Klio Krajewska.

From every exhibition space in which I display work within DISTANT SUFFERING, I collect dust and I paint a picture with that dust mixed with the debris of the Mishal Cultural Center. At the moment 23 works, displayed in 18 art spaces in nine countries.

Gaza City | January 26, 2018 | the rubble in the plastic bag photo’s ©2019 | Mohammed Al hawajri

exhibitions / art-related activities | selection

2022

LahorePakistan | In the glare of grey moon | Ranrez art gallery | Curator Mehreen Hashmi

BruggesBelgium | Expect an Occasional Attack … and Flee | CultuurCentrum Brugge | Curator Jan Verhaeghe

Geelong Australia | KART | David Delifiora

Middelburg, ruimteCAEUUR, LIPA art collection

Peace letters to Ukrain #2Germany [ no. 38 – video i.d. of a shared bullet ]

BeirutLebanon | Kite project as part of the exhibition Salute to the Prisoners of Freedom Art Exhibition at Institute for Palestinian Studies

Curator Sebastian BernburgU.K., Arts Coordinator London

StockholmSweden | presenting teamCAESUUR with Giel Louws and i.d. of a shared bullet

Supermarket Independent Art Fair | curator Alice Máselníková, Creative Director

StockholmSweden | part of the summer exhibition in Slipvillan | Curator team Studio44

Česká SkaliceCzech Republic | Luxfer Open Space | part of the presentation of the Lípa Art Collection

Curator/collector Roel van der Linden

TiranaAlbania | part of the (first) Tirana Biennial of Graphic Arts - first edition | Art Gallery of Tirana curators Beste GürsuTurkey, Helidon HalitiAlbania, Zake PrelvukajKosovo

2021

Česká SkaliceCzech Republic | Luxfer Open Space | residency / solo exhibition

AarhusDenmark | Juxtapose Art Fair | curator Sasha Rose Richter

2020

Zeeland | Art Magazine decreet | Also in the public space of Middelburg

MilanItaly | MEN OF (street art) | Independent Artists | curator Martina Buttiglieri

Tilburg | Steal like an Artist! | Kunstpodium ‘T’ | Curated by Lost Painters | Niek Hendrix

2019

KarachiPakistan | Kabutar 1 | curator Mehreen Hashmi

Milantaly | Kabutar 2 | Manuel Zoia Gallery

Watermans Arts CentreEngland | London | exhibition D.R.H.A. | curator Klio Krajewska

2018

Willem Twee art space | Den Bosch | DISTORTION | curator Loek Grootjans

2014 - 2017

Middelburg | Abby Complex | Iconoclastic Fury | 2017

Amersfoort | Biënnale Foreign Guests | 2016

Gouda | Art Gouda | het Weeshuis | 2016

SYMPOSION | Gorinchem | 2015

Mon Capitaine - Middelburg | 2015 | solo

AntwerpBelgium | (WOOT) | solo | 2015

Vlissingen | Willem3 / Goes | W45 kunstruimte | 2014

1999 – 2014

Le Secet | 2014

CBK Rotterdam | 2013

Veere | SPRING | Grote Kerk Veere | 2012

Kunstuitleen Terneuzen | 2011 | solo

Stadsgehoorzaal Middelburg, Foyer | 2009 | solo

Sanders Geluk: PROJECT ARTIST-IN-CARAVAN | Kunstsuper Rotterdam | 2007

1/1 ALMOST GENUINE | CBK Zeeland Summer Studio | Middelburg | 2006 | duo

Jan van Leeuwen Stichting | Middelburg | 2005 | solo

[LOGO! NO LOGO?] | BrughesBelgium | 2003

VERDER TERUG | Trechter 5, Goes | 2002

Koetshuis van de Groep Planning, BruggeBelgium | Brughes Cultural Capital Europe | 2002 | solo

RAAMWERK | OostendeBelgium | 2001

ENGAGÉ! - West-VlaanderenBelgium, Zeeland, Nord-Pas de CalaisFrance | 2000

Galerij Germinahof | Sterksel | 2000 | duo

Presentatieruimte De Overslag | Eindhoven | 1999 | solo

Financial support

Mondrian Fund

SBKM / Vleeshal Middelburg

Frits Lensvelt Stichting KulturrådetSweden Region StockholmSweden

Awards, residencies, commissions and public collections

Winner Global Arts Award 2020 from Red Line Art Works, a UK-based global arts project, category art series

Sea foundation | Tilburg | [ residence ] September – October 2018 / Mondrian Fund

Work in private collections, Independent ArtistsItaly , Ramírez Art GalleryPakistan, LIPACzech Republic , Karpuchina GalleryCzech Republic , The Institute for Palestine StudiesLebanon | Palestine | London | Washington

Public spaces in Axel and Neeltje Jans

Art-related activities Hans Overvliet as part of his art praxis

2015 - 2021 Co-initiator of Association Art House Zeeland, platform for artists

2012 - Co-creator / co-curator Kunstpark Vlissingen / Landscape Art Park Vlissingen

2009 - 2019 Chairman Foundation Studio Complex KipVis

2009 - 2014 Chairman Foundation decreet / concrete, Art magazine decreet

2005 - 2012 Chairman PLUS MIN Foundation, Renesse, succeeded by IK Foundation, Vlissingen

1995 - Founder, curator and co-director of Art Space ruimteCAESUUR

1995 - Curator / art educational projects / advising governmental institutions on art hans overvliet

studio address | Dreesstraat 2, Vlissingen +31 6 282 77 052 www.hansovervliet.com curiositas@zeelandnet.nl

Short description of the current work

Since 2013, by means of the work in progress distant suffering, the Dutch artist Hans Overvliet investigates the role of the media in their representation of (military) violence. 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, artwork and viewer infiltrate his multifaceted conceptual oeuvre.

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 transition into art is inspired by the Dutch Artist Armando: It is the beauty of evil, ‘die Schönheit des Bösen’, located in the belly of the evil, looking for a place in the wake of evil in order to show to show himself to me, although it doesn’t amuse me at all. This beauty calls me to transfer the ‘evil’ into the innocent, because of the amoral domain of art. (Armando, Acknowledgements About Beauty, 1987)

The action driven perspective that is postulated in the notion of Hannah Arendt’s non-paternalistic empathy, is the performative part of the art series distant suffering.

performative part of the art series distant suffering.

Elements of distant suffering were exhibited in the Netherlands, Belgium, Pakistan, England, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Lebanon 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 28-year old space for contemporary art: ruimteCAESUUr.

hans overvliet studio address | Dreesstraat 2, Vlissingen +31 6 282 77 052 www.hansovervliet.com curiositas@zeelandnet.nl