My studio in Flushing is my workshop, my place of escape, my safe haven, my refuge, my idea box, in short, one of the most important places in my life. At times the most important.
The drive from Middelburg to Vlissingen is a feast every time. Zeeland, its polders, ditches, birds, sheep, cows. Different light every day. Sometimes even changing on the day itself. You get to experience the seasons as they present themselves, day by day.
From October 2024, I have been following colleagues like Mohamed Harb on facebook. Every day I drive to the studio, they are in my mind. Sometimes in general terms, sometimes specifically: what would Mohamed do today? Often anxiously: will Mohamed survive today?
At the studio I quickly open fb. Pfffff: a post from him.
Now, January/February 2025 my colleagues, as Mohamed, returned to what was his home, his studio and archive. Returned to his workshop, his place of escape, his safe haven, his refuge, his idea box. Only to see that there was nothing left of it. In blind vindictiveness, his oeuvre was destroyed by the apartheid state of Israel. In his words: What does extermination mean? That in an instant your first home is destroyed! The destruction of my home, my studio, my 32-year-old archive and a collection of Arabic art, the oldest of which was painted in 1969.
To keep the memory alive of this injustice, I am making this memento for Mohamed. I do not add anything to his story, I am just the involved messenger who only reflects what he put out into the world via fb. Out of respect and love for a man I have never met, but with whom I feel a bond that travels with me to Flushing every day.
I hope with all my hart that Mohamed has the energy to start all over, knowing that he is continuing an accomplished artistry; from the premise that the best work still houses in him.
February 17, 2025 | Hans Overvliet with the kind permission of Mohamed Harb
Mohamed Abusal | 26/01/'24
What does extermination mean?
That in an instant your first home is destroyed! The destruction of my home, my studio, my 32-year-old archive and a collection of Arabic art, the oldest of which was painted in 1969
If I only knew one word deeper than 'I am gone' . . . I told her that I have never felt my soul become as it is now. Dostoevsky – quoted by Harb
Loving the land is not shouting on the field or raising flags, but a silent and diligent act to restore the land and revive the values that make us human beings before we are citizens.
Leo Tolstoy
From a novel: war and peace | quoted by Harb
