Issuu

distant suffering | portfolio

Edition Tuesday, 11 August 2026

www.hans overvliet.com

hans overvliet studio-address | Dreesstraat 2 Vlissingen home-address | Lange Noordstraat 67, NL-4331 CC Middelburg www.hansovervliet.com | curiositas@zeelandnet.nl team member of www.caesuur.nu team member of www.ikbeneengod.one click here for my condensed portfolio click here for my extended portfolio click here for my C.V. International reference: DutchCulture

Front page: DISTANT SUFFERING VI | i.d. of a shared key | Kunstverein projektraum-bahnhof25 | Kleve | Germany - 2023

CONTENT

The head scarfed girl Autonomous art works Participatory art works Paper collages Dr. Dani Ploeger Temporal Disruption and Anti-Efficiency: Hans Overvliet’s critical media practice Justification Exhibitions / art-related activities - selection Acknowledgement

studio address | Dreesstraat 2, Vlissingen www.hansovervliet.com curiositas@zeelandnet.nl photo ©BeauneFR 2023 courtesy of Willy van Houtum

M. & cross #2 | Middelburg Saturday, March 17, 2018 In the studio complex in Vlissingen in the Netherlands, where my studio is situated, an artwork of mine is located on an intermediate platform of the stairwell. From ground level, five steps lie between you and that work. It measures 144 x 244 centimetres. The artwork is an enlargement of a paper collage, printed on Perspex; different images are cut out horizontally and pasted back and thus interlock into a story with each other. Indeed it is the Image on the right. A group of twelve year old children of a primary school is visiting the complex in the context of an art education project. A head scarfed girl, called M., sees the artwork and freezes in her movement. And she looks. After some time she takes the five steps up. Now she is standing still on the intermediate platform. And looks. Then she slowly walks forward. Somewhere in the jumble of images she has discovered the head scarfed girl. That girl stands with her arms wide spread amidst the rubble of a street somewhere in Syria. The iconic picture of a prisoner in the Abu Ghraib Prison is imminent. Our girl now touches the image almost with her nose; the artwork towering above her. Then she moves very, very slowly her hands together until her fingertips touch each other as if she was holding a sphere. Then her hands include the girl's head in the collage. She is standing there, her hands around the head of the other head scarfed girl. Eye in eye. Face à face . . .

cross #2 | 2007

(...) Flushing – 2015

DISTANT SUFFERING I | syrian skies 1,000 days - 2014 work 12 prints A4 of photos from the Dutch daily de Volkskrant of 23/12/’13 Canon MP-101 matt photo paper 170 grams, Canon Pixma MG6150 printer on 10 mm. foam board exhibitions Syrian skies [1,000 days] | April 8, 2014 12 clouds on A4, Art Space Willem3, Flushing Syrian skies [2,000 days] | October 21, 2016 12 clouds on A4, Art Space W45, Goes Syrian skies [2,238 days] | May 17, 2017 12 clouds on A4 for Studio 7 in Flushing 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 on A5, for KART / David Delifiora – Geelong – Australia Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025

What looks like a collection of modern, enlarged versions of classic cloudscapes turns out to be an adaptation of images of explosions in Syria. Overvliet brings the printing rasters back into this age of superresolution. Where in past years he commented on the images of war in collages, he now takes a closer look at them in a style that is entirely new to me. Very impressive. Noud Hovius - writer

Ariha | 07-09-2013

Yarbroud | 17-05-2013

DISTANT SUFFERING III | i.d. of recovery work

2 platters Ø 45 cm. | 2 video stills | video with the crushing platter

video photo

exhibition

video link

DISTANT SUFFERING IV | documentation of a cloud - 2015 work 3 x [ 8,2 x 12,8 cm.] full colour prints on Hahnemüle German Etching 310 grs. mounted on 10 mm. Kapafix the Syrische town Kobane / Ain al-Arab, observed from the Turkish village Mursitpinar / Mürşitpınar [ 36° 54' 14" North, 38° 20' 52" East ] in the Sanliurfa region Monday, October 20, 2014 exhibitions (WOOT) Antwerpen | Belgium - 2015 Art Gouda | het Weeshuis - 2016 studio seven | Vlissingen - 2016 Sea foundation Tilburg - 2018 Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice | Czech Republic – 2021 Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025

photo | Bulent Kilic | AFP Photo

photo | Gokhan Sahin | Getty Images

photo | Lefteris Pitarakis | AP Photo

ISTA NT

SUFFERING VI | i.d. of a shared key #1 – 2015 | exhibit practice in progress

Palestinian refugees whom I met from the early eighties, to the pre-sent day keep up the keys of their homes from which they were expelled 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 Fisk *. The chapter "The Keys of Palestine" ** associating me with my own experiences, I always remembered. The artwork consists of 215 scoured biscuit tins, of which I remo-ved 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 picked away. Each exhibition image is determined in situ. The pictures on the next pages show the work in the exhibition ART GOUDA [01/06 / '16 - 05/06 / '16]. This work measures (height x width x depth) 2.44 x 1.22 x 1.22 cm.

* **

Pity the Nation | Robert Fisk | Oxford Paperbacks ISBN 978-0-19-280130-2 | 1990 This chapter can be read on http://www.archipelago.org/vol6-3/fisk.htm

Luxfer Open Space | Česká SkaliceCzech Republic | 2021 photo ©Lukáš Jasanský | courtesy by Luxfer

Art Gouda | het Weeshuis | 2016

photo courtesey of ©André Smits | October 5, 2023

photo courtesey of ©Dirk KnickhoffGermany | Verbeke FoundationBelgium | November 23, 2025

photo courtesey of ©Jorieke | November 23, 2025

DISTANT SUFFERING VII - VIII - IX | i.d. of a shared cloud / wave / home - 2015 selection used images work 3 ‘out-lines’ of filing cabinets, each 134 cm. x 49,5 cm. x 71 cm. [ h x w x d ] material weathering steel 2x [ 10 x 10 mm.] 1x [ 12 x 12 mm.], wooden bars 1 x 1 cm., Nobo OHP Transparency Film, sided acid-free tape filled with 1,000 images of explosions and ‘holiday clouds’ on 50 sheets codes super imposed on the images: unique location positioning from a military open source website; 1,000 images of waves | statistics Global Warming on 50 sheets; 1,000 images of destroyed houses | ground plans in the images: send to me - in 1996 on my request – from and of 72 national libraries The World Library Art Project on 50 sheets. exhibitions AFFAF | Café Spoorzicht – Arnemuiden - 2015 Biënnale Amersfoort | Vreemde Gasten ( Foreign Guests ) - 2016 Abby Complex | Middelburg | Iconoclastic Fury - 2017 Sea foundation | Tilburg [ residence ] – 2018 Single work with the waves | Bewaerschole | Burgh-Haamstede – 2024 Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025

-2538031 | -3490053 | 37SBT5691709784

-2542538 | -3495143 | 37SCV1973385798

-2538031 | -3490053 | 37SBT5691709784

DISTANT SUFFERING XVIII | defacing palestine | the nakba 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 from 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 his computer screen, which shows all the actions that led to each individual obituary. work conceived from April 24 till June 2, 2018 1 metal archive box with drawer | brand / production year unknown 39,7 x 19,8 x 15,3 cm [ l., w., h. ] | handle 8,5 x 0,8 cm. 417 obituaries | 19, 1 cm. x 14,7 cm. [ l., w. ] black & white prints with 5% extra cyan on Staples inkjet printer paper, 170 g/m2, matt | by Canon PIXMA IMAX651 laptop Samsung notebook NP.R530 with a video of the making process [ www.vimeo.com/268949587 ] 2 consoles | MDF 18 mm. | Flexa white primer | Flexa white satin gloss for metal archive box: 90 x 28 x 60 cm. [ h., w., l. ] for laptop [ Samsung R530]: 90 x 36 x 23,3 cm. [ h., w., l. ] text on inner wall | Details ( excerpt ) | Ghayath Almadhoun exhibition ruimteCAESUUR | Middelburg - 2018 - opening speech by Ingrid Rollema Juxtapose Art Fair | Aarhus - Denmark - 2021

click here for the catalog

DISTANT SUFFERING XXB | i.d. of a shared game set – 2021 work 1:144 3D Battle Damaged Building Outland Model Railway Office Scene For Child Gift Hand Work Plastic ABS Assemble Game Set (Li Limyt) Bleached bird feathers Plexiglass hood | 25 x 25 x 25 [ x o,3 ] cm. Console | 30 x 25 x 2,5 cm. MDF 9 mm. | primer white / topcoat Gamma white 710 – matt exhibitions ‫ – کبوتر‬KABUTAR – PIGEON, INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL EXCHANGE PROGRAM Cultural exchange exhibition between Pakistan / Karachi and Italy / Milan Curator | Mehreen Hashimi DISTANT SUFFERING – the project | 2021 Solo oeuvre exhibition | Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice / Czech Republic Curator | Kateřina Štroblová photo next page ©Lukáš Jasanský, courtesy by Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice | Czech Republic IN THE GLARE OF GREY MOON | 2022 Group exhibition in Lahore / Pakistan | Curator | Mehreen Hashimi INSANES | 2023 | SmithArt | Group exhibition in Middelburg Curator | Johan de Koning Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025 Photos courtesy of 2023 Bo de Jong

DISTANT SUFFERING XXE | i.d. of liquid mobility - 2021 work two Dutch newspapers [ NRC / VK ] wallpaper paste Perfix non-woven | paint: Histor black 6372 – matt two Faller rowing boats blue, Artitec H0 Steel A387.09-BL approximately 50 x 33 cm. on four threaded rods | Ø 5 mm exhibitions decreet-concreet | Zeeuws Art Magazine - September 2020 Boulevard of beauty & solace | Middelburg Canal / opposite Town Hall - 2020 Turbulent Waters | Arsis | Markizaat / Bergen op Zoom - 2020 / 2021 Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice | Czech Republic – 2021 Boulevard of beauty & solace | decreet | Vlissingen - 2023 click here for the catalog

Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice | Czech Republic – 2021 | opening / artist talk photo courtesy of 2021 ©Willy van Houtum

Juxtapose Art Fair | Aarhus | Denmark – 2021 | curator Pamela Grombacher | photo courtesy of 2021 ©Willy van Houtum

Cultuurcentrum Brugge | April 21, 2022 | photos courtesy of 2022 ©Ivan van de Capelle

Courtesy of 2022 ©Bärbel Praun Supermarket Independent Art Fair | Stockholm | Sweden | May 26 – 29, 2022 | photos courtesy of 2021 ©Willy van Houtum

Courtesy of 2022 ©Ruben Hordijk

De Aningslösa / The Uninitiated | Slipvillan | Långholmen Stockholm | Sweden | June 4 – June 17, 2022

Kunstverein projektraum-bahnhof25 | Kleve | Germany | November 11, 2023

Courtesy of 2025 ©Willy van Houtum

Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | November 23. 2024 – April 28, 2025

opening performance OPEN NIGHTS festival | Larissa | Greece October 9 – October 19, 2025

produzentengalerie plan-d | Düsseldorf | opening performance by Peter & Sonja March 21 – April 19, 2026

Special thanks to Willy van Houtum | research, production, first / original video Loek Overvliet | console Jochem Weststrate | def. timelaps video and stills Roman Rejhold and Kate Štroblová | curators for Luxfer Open Space Sasha Rose Richter | Pamela Grombacher | Jacob Juhl | Cecilie Bernts curators for the Juxtapose Art Fair Wilfried Agricola de Cologne and Yarina Butkowska | curators for The New Museum of Networked Art Jan Verhaeghe | curator for Cultuurcentrum Brugge | photos by Jan Verhaeghe & Ivan van de Capelle Alice Máselníková | Creative Director for Supermarket – Stockholm Independent Art Fair Rikard Fåhraeus of Studio44 / Slipvallen in Stockholm Team Bahnhof25 / Kleve Team plan-d / Düsseldorf Click here for the time-laps video

DISTANT SUFFERING XXVIII

Courtesy of 2025 ©Giel Louws

Work – edition 3 + 1 A.P. 24 prints of clouds, 12 x 15 cm. on 300 grs. Plano Superior | plant&flower press After the presentation, the work will be included both in the Archive of Haus der Kunst as well as in the Archive Artist Publications, both in Munich.

DISTANT SUFFERING XXXI

other than joyful peace, no news from the Western Front December 22, 2022 – February 24, 2023 50 pictures of skies in Zeeland in solidarity with Oleg K. and his family in Kiev - Ukraine

September – October 2023

Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium November 2024 – April 2025

DURDEN AND RAY Gallery | Los Angeles | Slipvillan | Stockholm | April – May 2023

ruimteCAESUUR | Middelburg August – September 2023

DISTANT SUFFERING XXXIII

i.d. of a deadly pattern attempts to keep alive the memory of the journalists who were brutally killed while trying to cover the massacres in the Gaza Strip and in Israel in October 2024 – February 2024. With their very lamented deaths, the voices of the victims are also silenced and, at the same time, most of the crimes - in particular those which the Palestinian people endured – are relegated to obscurity. The website of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) provided the sad information . . . Photos courtesy of ©2024 Giel Louws

The names and dates of the deceased journalists were taken from the website of the Committee of Protecting Journalists - CPJ. The names are printed in the letter Times New Roman, a font that is still used as the base letter in many printed news organizations. The 95+ A4 prints on 300 grs. Plano Superior, printer Canon TS7000 series, were treated with various concentrations of the fungicide HG Mold Remover and then fixated as best I could with Montana Tech Varnish Spray - matt. There is a reasonable chance that in the foreseeable future the names will disappear entirely. Then the work as an art piece will connect with an early work by one of my inspirations. i.e. That of Ulay: Fototot (Photo Death) which I saw at de Appel in Amsterdam in 1976 and a work of myself: i.d. of a shared bullet. In that case, I sincerely hope that its repercussion - the catalogue - has a slightly longer life, but that above all the memory of people who saw the work ensures that the journalists in question are not forgotten and that the fruits of their labeur continue to contribute to the liberation of the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank. Middelburg, February 14, 2024

DISTANT SUFFERING XXX

i.d. of a shared ceramic bullet | 2022 - 2024 utterly endlessly repurposed naive incantation gesture video portrait by Jochem Weststrate Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | November 23. 2024 – April 28, 2025

Click here for the catalogue Click here for the video

Stichting Bewaerschole Weststraat 18 4328 AB Burgh-Haamstede

DISTANT SUFFERING LIV

i.d. of a burned future Leiden 1959 | Gaza 2023 - 2025 Work from our family archive 10 black and white photoprints 9 x 14 cm | 300 grs Plano plexiglas cube 30 x 30 x 30 cm wooden console | 30 x 30 x 20 cm painted matte white Soap Nablus soap, imported by Zepig from the Nablus Soap Company Photo Leiden, 1959 | Wil Freeke Pieter de la Courtstraat 67 grandparents back garden Left to right: our niece Annemieke Freeke, me and my brother Marten Catalogue Click here for the catalogue

DISTANT SUFFERING XXXXV | i.d. of a shared gold-plated bullet gold plated ceramic bullet, silk roses, blue velver, classic bell jar 50 cm Ø | 22 cm gold plated ceramic bullet, nest of a great tit, blue velvet, classic bell jar 50 cm Ø | 45 cm gold plated ceramic bullet, silk lilies, blue velvet, classic bell jar 50 cm Ø | 22 cm

DISTANT SUFFERING XXXXVII

i.d. of an encased bullet performance | multiple (47 + 7 A.P.’s) Zeeuwse Art Fair Pop-up the Machine Vlissingen | October 25 and 26, 2024 Photo’s courtesy of ©2024 Sylvia Hubrouck Bo de Jong | Giel Louws

A project by Bo de Jong & Bert Dorrestijn May 3, 2025 | KipVis / Sloeweg – Flushing nine yellow cleaning wipes | nine languages | one question

Click here for the catalogue with the five editions

DISTANT SUFFERING XXXXVI | i.d. of the shared tale of a bullet

( difference and repetition ) Toonbeeld | Verbeeldingsroute / Imagination Pathway 2025 July 5 – September 13, 2025 Museum ‘ING-gang’ | Stadhuisplein / Terneuzen

DISTANT SUFFERING LI i.d. of the persistence of the clinique Colmar | Deir al-Balah -

Brass Plate

Work

in memoriam Sha’ban al-Dalou (19)

Triptych November 2024 – January 2025 Intra-Venous (IV) material folding mattress BASIC F15 | JYSK three plexiglas cubes 35 x 35 x 35 cm wooden console 110 x 105 x 35 painted matte white

burned alive on October 14, 2024 in a tent at al-Aqsa-hospital in Deir-al-Balah | Gaza due to an Israeli airstrike Click here for the catalogue

DISTANT SUFFERING XXXVIII

i.d. of a shared white kite “If I die / you must live / to tell my story … let it bring hope / let it be a tale.” Refaat Al-Areer Three kites made from newspapers with articles about the genocide in Gaza and war crimes in the West Bank form a kind of protective canopy. The tails are made with 106 names of murdered journalists in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon between 07/10/2024 - 14/09/2025. To be heard is the poem by Refaat Al-Areer (1979 - 2023) If I must die in Dutch, German, Arabic and English*. Refaat Alareer was a Palestinian writer, poet, professor, and activist from the Gaza Strip. He taught literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza. Refaat co-founded the organization We Are Not Numbers, which matched experienced authors with young writers in Gaza, and promoted the power of storytelling as a means of Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation. On 6 December 2023, at 6 P.M. Alareer was deliberately targeted by a surgically Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza.

Click here for the audio of the poem.

Locations: Nieuwe Kerk | Middelburg Supporting an exhibition with artworks of Gazan artists Grote Kerk | Driebergen Supporting the ambassadors' meeting of Tent of Nations National Theatre ’t Spui | Den haag Supporting Movies Tha Matter

DISTANT SUFFERING LVI | i.d. of shared betrayal Click here for a short video-introduction; Click here for the catalogue

stills from the video video, courtesy by ©Myuz Ahmed, July 27, 2025, Gaza Strip

DISTANT SUFFERING LVIII | identification of a deadly pattern Click here for a short video-introduction; Click here for the catalogue.

Gallery ValenciaSpain April 2026

DISTANT SUFFERING LVVI | i.d. of a treacherous sky

Work DISTANT SUFFERING LVVI | i.d. of a self-perpetuating cloud

9 kites, bamboo sticks Ø4-4.5 mm, upright ±55 cm, cross bar ±40 cm, attached to the upright on ±17 cm; Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, December 2025; 9 A3 black-and-white prints of clouds / explosions in the Netherlands / Gaza; Tesa flexible masking tape, beige, 20 mm; Ledent braided rope white polyamide, Ø3 mm; Albert Heijn water-based craft glue; Bison wood glue; GAMMA interior paint, white, matt; Bieme double-sided, acid-free adhesive tape, 20 mm; Foamboard, 5 mm; Velcro fastener. Click here for the catalogue.

participatory art works

DISTANT SUFFERING XIV | i.d. of a shared cloud ‘the ‘book’ text Dr. Dani Ploeger Temporal Disruption and Anti-Efficiency: Hans Overvliet’s critical media practice | page 70 of this port folio work clam book A4+ 1,000 stickers, to be glued on a grid on 100 pages A4, 120 grs. execution #1` Sea foundation | Tilburg - 2018 execution #2 KunstHal 45 | Den Helder - 2019

i.d. of a shared cloud | the book The text by Dani Ploeger Temporal Disruption and Anti-Efficiency: Hans Overvliet's critical media practice, to be found further on in this portfolio, is about this work of the It concerns a different elaboration of i.d. or a shared cloud, namely in the form of a 'book' on the boundary of artist's book, performance and multiple. The configuration is a so-called clam shelf box, provided with a dust jacket with an intaglio print of the title and the name of the author on the front and back. On 100 pages, a grid is printed. Separately supplied is a number of sticker sheets with the 1000 explosions / clouds with the unique codes. The person who buys the 'book', together with the artist assembles the stickers into the grid, which disappears. At this point it is in order to raise two issues: one of the characteristics of my work concerns working itself (labor | laborans = working / giving birth). My productions are always extremely labor intensive, concern large series over long periods of time with many repetitive actions. This 'book' aims to contribute to this discourse. And the possessor. I want to include the person who purchases the 'book' in this process of concentration, linearity and repetition. The content of i.d. of a shared cloud is by means of the seemingly endless repetition of what is happening around us - now by means of actions - experience by the person making ‘the book’.

A process that ultimately, by the choice of the person who compiles the 'book', based on that repetition, ends in a unique result. And the possessor of this 'book' ultimately gathers a greater knowledge of his / her book than the artist. Performance and book are therefore essentially interconnected: the visitor is given the opportunity to participate in what the inventor / executor intends and wants to achieve. In addition, a discussion about 'the object' in art has long dominated my thinking: is it possible to make art without an object as the end result of a chain of attitudes, ideas and actions / decisions, but in which and at which the whole creating process in the work is anchored and solidified at the same time? This 'book' – like the ice bullet further on - aims to contribute to this discourse.

supported by

March 2017 | Hans Overvliet

Sea foundation | 2018 KunstHal 45 - 2019

DISTANT SUFFERING | kites sharing the sky Work 20 kites Ø 106 cm, made out of artisan (Washi), made in Japan: Inshu Kozo, 56 grams, color white. The gross size of the sent sheet is 98 by 98 cm Participating artists from Pakistan | Mehreen Hashmi from Gaza / Palestine | Mohammed alHawajri, Dina Mattar and Raed Issa from Germany / Danmark | Jörn Burmester from Belgium | jen gossé, Frie J. Jacobs and Jan Verhaeghe from the Netherlands | Leni van den Berge, Ko de Jonge, Dani Ploeger, leon riekwell, Loek Grootjans, Ingrid Rollema, Hans Overvliet, Stef Fridael, Robin Weijers, Harriët Rademakers and Rinus Roepman Exhibitions Vlissingen beach | 2018 ruimteCAESUUR | Middelburg | 2018 De Vasim | Nijmegen | 2018 Institute for Palestine Studies | Palestine Hall | Beirut, Lebanon | 2022 all the kites are now in the permanent collection of I.P.S. with galleries in Beirut, Ramallah, London and Washington D.C. Studio44 / Slipvillan | Långholmen | Stockholm, Sweden | 2022 10 kites made out of Jpg’s were shown Click here for the catalogue of the project & exhibition Click here for the catalogue with the international political uproar

DISTANT SUFFERING | kites sharing the sky

commemorating the palestinian exodus In 2010, thousands of children in Gaza improved the Guinness Record Kite (kite flying record) that they themselves had established in 2009. 7,202 Children and as many pilots and kites participated in this event, organized by UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee organization of the United Nations.

were exhibited in April 2022 during the exhibition Salute to the Prisoners of Freedom. Kites, constructed of work send by Jpeg – due to the postal situation in Gaza or by choice of the artis – were exhibited in Stockholm during the summer exhibition THE UNINITIATED in June 2022.

In 2018, people in Gaza use kite flying as a cheerful political statement of protest, occasionally alternated with an attempt of actual resistance to underscore the 70-years remembering of the Nakba - the Disaster. The term Al-Nakba refers to the 1948 war with Israel. A war with the current disastrous consequences for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. With their pro-tests, the Palestinians support their demand for returning to their villages and cities. A requirement, incidentally, that is recognized by numerous internationally recognized organizations, including the U.N.

In 2021 the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) published a report (English/Dutch) that documented for the first time the attempts to suppress Palestinian rights advocacy in the Netherland in which the kite project functions as one of the case studies.

I wanted to create an exhibition consisting of art kites, made by some 20 colleague artists working allover the world, who have expressed a critical attitude towards social developments in the past and / or identified them-selves with my work. The exhibition has two moments: the kites were air born on Saturday, October 20 at 4 o'clock in Vlissingen during a heavenly vernissage, whether by the artists themselves or our friends, and subsequently shown in ruimteCAESUUR. Afterwards, the kites Found their definitive place in the art collection of the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut / Rammalah / London and Washington DC. In this context the kites were exhibited in April 2022 during the exhibition Salute to the Prisoners of Freedom.

Vlissingen beach

ruimteCAESUUR

De Vasim | Nijmegen

Institute for Palestine Studies | Beirut, Lebanon

The Uninitiated | artist-house Slipvillan | Långholmen / Stockholm, June 2022

the kite-flying Dutchman cultural history of the Dutch aviation imagination from 1600 - 2020

Uit: ‘De vliegerende Hollander’ | cultuurgeschiedenis van de Nederlande vliegverbeelding vanaf 1600 - 2020 From: ‘the kite-flying Dutchman’ | cultural history of the Dutch aviation imagination from 1600 – 2020 ( translation H.O. ) Gaza and Vlíssingen Almost four centuries after an image of an Ambonese fishing kite appeared in a Dutch book, and three centuries after the blind seer Rumphius wrote about it in his Ambo Insch herb book – the fish kite was reinvented in a Dutch children’s book. It now had become an eco friendly reminder of a world where you could fish without a permit from Brussels’ fishing quotas. A world without politics. But such a world without politics only exists in children’s books. This became clear once again when the Zeeland artist Hans Overvliet organized a kite project for the Middelburg gallery Caesuur in 2018. In the 70th year of the state of Israel, Overvliet asked twenty artists from home and abroad to create a work of art on a hexagonal sheet of Japanese paper that could be converted into a kite. The resulting kites were launched on October 20, 2018 on the Vlissingen beach. The artist wanted to recall the fact that in 2011 the Guinness record for the largest number of simultaneously launched kites was set by children from the Gaza Strip: 12.35 kites remained in the air for the required 30 seconds at a time. A nice action, but Overvliet also pointed to a less pleasant side of kite flying in Gaza: “ On the other hand, kites are used to fly flammable materials and small explosives to Israeli territory and cause damage there.” The intention was

that the kite artworks would contribute to constructive thinking about such

and cause damage there.” The intention was that the kite artworks would contribute to constructive thinking about such ambivalences. That did not work very well. Some spectators thought they saw swastikas and anti-Semitic messages on the kites, and others even saw a bomb explosion where one of the artists wanted to depict a vagina. There was a fuss in local politics. The planned revival of the event, a few days later, was canceled. As the initiator remarked: “It makes little sense that I will tell on the boulevard what the kites are for, when people who think we should be shot in the legs, as I read on social media, threaten to come.” Almost a hundred years after the kite competition of Jacob Israël de Haan, the Vlissingen kite project made it painfully clear that peace in the Middle East was still a long way off. It also raised a question that had often been asked in the confrontation between the Western and the Eastern world: is the kite an innocent piece of children’s toy, a symbol of innocence and hope, or is it a means of fighting?

DISTANT SUFFERING XIX0 | dissection of a disappearing cloud nine parts March 26 - April 26, 2019 total dimensions work | 287,7 x 192,9 cm. work 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. content 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. From every exhibition space in which I display work within DISTANT SUFFERING, I collect dust and I paint a picture with that dust. exhibition Radical Immersions | Watermans Arts Centre, London. In parallel with the Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts [ D.R.H.A. ] conference | 2019. The exhibition was curated by Klio Krajewska. Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | curated by Marie Verboven

Watermans Art Centre | London | 07/09/2019 | ©photo Dani Ploeger

Watermans Art Centre | London | 07/09/2019 | ©photos Dani Ploeger

Works / places DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 0 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2020 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza with Radical Immersions | Watermans Arts Centre, London. In parallel with the Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts [ D.R.H.A. ] conference | 2019. The exhibition was curated by Klio Krajewska. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 1 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2018 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza with the studio complex Kipvis in Vlissingen & Gallery Arsis in Bergen op Zoom. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 2 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2018 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza with ruimteCAESUUR. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 3 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2018 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Sea foundation in Tilburg. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 4 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2019 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza with de Roofprintpers in Middelburg. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 5 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2019 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza the art space Kunsthal 45 in Den Helder. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 6 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2020 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza with the art spaces in Pakistan and Italy in which the exhibitions of the art-project Kabutar, curated by Mehreen Hashmi, was exhibited.

DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 7 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2020 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Biekorf, Bruges, Belgium within the program Comedy of the human deficit by Geertje Vangenechten, curated by Jan Verhaeghe DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 8 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2020 – 2021 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Arsis, exhibition in the Markiezenhof, Bergen op Zoom. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 9 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2021 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Kunstprdium’T’ in Tilburg. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 10 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2021 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with This Art fair, Amsterdam DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 11 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2021 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Luxfer Open Space in Česká Skalice in the Czech Republic. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 12 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2021 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with in the Juxtapose Art Fair / Rå Ha in Arhus in Denmark. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 14 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with the torn down ‘t Blokhuis in Kattedijke. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 15 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Lípa Art Collection in Prague in the Czech Republic. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 16 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with the Institute for Palestine Studies, Palestine Hall/ IPS building, Beirut, Lebanon

DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 17 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with The Poortersloge, CultuurCentreBruges, Belgium DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 18 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Supermarket Independent Art Fair in Stockholm, Sweden. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 19 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with the garden and the art-house of Slipvillan in Stockholm, Sweden. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 20 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD

2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Studio44 in Stockholm, Sweden. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 21 connecting with the Tirana Biennial of Graphic Arts, First edition” 25 October- 25 November 2022

Art Gallery of Tirana, Tirana, Albania DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 22 connecting with the exhibition what is the value of art? organised in Noordstraat 74 in Terneuzen by

Zeur Hoenderop in November - December 2022. I revitalized DISTANT SUFFERING VII - VIII – IX into a multiple. Click here for the ( Dutch! ) statement I made for this exhibition DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 23 connecting with the Dokumenta Archive in Kassel, Germany, December 2022.

The poster ‘i.d. of inequality’ is – thanks to Jürgen Olbrich – part of their history and collection. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 24 connecting with NO-INSTITUTE of Jürgen OOlbrich, Kassel, Germany in December 2022.

In 2022 we started working together on several ( mail-art ) projects, all accompanied by delightful dialogues. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 25 connecting with Adam Roussopoulos, mail artist in Chaska, USA | January 2023

Stamps of ‘i.d. of a shared bullet’ and my portrait stamp became part of his mail-art-stamp project.

DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 26 conecting with Sana’a, in Yemen, collected by Galit on February 12, 2023 for the Durden&RayUSA

version of i.d. of a shared cup of tea. Tanks to Issam and Bo. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 27 connecting with the Verbeke Foundation in Kemzeke, Belgium.

Almost all my paper collages now are part of the collection of the Verbeke Foundation. Thanks to Geert Verbeke. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 28 connecting with bunkers from WWII in Dishoek, Zeeland, June 3, 2023. Thanks to leon riekwell and

John. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 29 connecting with art centre Toonbeeld in Terneuzen Zeeland / Pakje Kunst, June 2023.

Thanks to Harmien Hamelink. Postiljon d’amour Ramon de Nennie. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 30 connecting with Gallery DurdenandRay, Los Angeles, U.S.A., August 2023.

Thanks to Carlos Beltran Arechiga who connected us and Ben Jackel, who delivered the dust. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 31 connecting with Kunstverein Projectraum Bahnhof25, Kleve, Germany

November 11 – December 12, 2023 Thanks to Dirk Knickhoff, Elisabeth Schink and Ulrike Scholder. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 32 connecting with SmithArt in Middelburg where I exhibited this very project.

October 1, 2023 – January 3, 2024 Thanks to Tineke Smith and Johan de Koning, curator. DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 33 connecting with Bewaerschole in Burgh-Haamstede.

August 24 – September 22, 2024

DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 34 connecting with ik geef je mijn raam

I give you my window in Vlissingen. September 6 – October 20, 2024 DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 35 connecting with ‘Still Alive – Voices from Gaza’

the Nieuwe Kerk in Middelburg. September 08 – November 31, 2024 DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 36 connecting with Pop-up the machine

DISTANT SUFFERING XXII | i.d. of inequality - 2020 work 200 full colour posters A1 [ 59,4 x 84 cm. ] qr-code linking to the main text on 135 gr. MC paper with the paraphernalia of ‘travelling / mobility’, placed in public spaces all over the world and a catalog / book in the making, following the process participation on this moment more than 130 participants from over 60 countries click here for the catalogue in the making

In our globalized world, there are many political contradictions: rich vs poor, white vs black, north vs south, et cetera. In recent years you have also seen this contradiction increasingly clearly expressed in mobility. Especially in the western world, travel-ling has taken extreme forms with the rise of tourism, and the globalization of internationally oriented companies, research centres, universities, et cetera. This mobility contrasts sharply with the necessary escape from war and poverty of migrants. There is no warm welcome for them, as western people can expect everywhere. No infrastructure in which they feel safe, no tax benefits, but countless dangers and hardships and hopeless admission criteria. Their mobility is restricted as much as possible and sold to us in terms of 'reception in the region'. While reality expresses itself in degrading refugee camps. In short, mobility is currently one of the clearest examples of privilege. However, the poster shows one of the few similarities between these different travellers, namely their luggage. The poignant differrence is in the contents of these suitcases, bags and backpacks. May 2020 | W.F.T. van Houtum

BarcelonaCAT | 25/02/’21

click here for video .

DISTANT SUFFERING XXII | i.d. of inequality - 2020 presentations of the interim responses Milan | Independent Artists | ( MAN OF ) STREET ART | Villa Bentano / Busto Garolfo – Milan October 4 – 21, 2020 four prints with reactions [ Gaza - Palestine, Venice - Italy, Fujian - China and Karachi – Pakistan ] on A2-Dibond and one A-0 full colour poster with qr-code linking to the main text all on 135 gr. MC paper with the paraphernalia of ‘travelling / mobility’ a catalogue A4, printed landscape on a pedestal with the results of the project until the exhibition date Stockholm | Slipvillan on Längholmen | De Aningslösa - The Uninitiate June 4 – 19, 2022 Poster A2, seven A3 posters with photos, one A3 print with text click here for the catalog in the making

Paper collages 1999 – 2012

Temporal Disruption and Anti-Efficiency: Hans Overvliet’s critical media practice

Dr. Dani Ploeger

The proliferation of digital news media over the past two decades has led to the distribution of increasing numbers of news events at ever higher speeds. Through news feeds and live alerts, updates on the latest incidents all over the world are disseminated almost instantly and continuously. In The Administration of Fear (2012), Paul Virilio discusses the paradoxical consequences of this development. Instead of facilitating a more detailed assessment of events and thus trigger empathetic action on the side of the recipient, the fast sequence of detailed mediatization of catastrophes and threats promotes a permanent state of fear. Whereas, in previous media eras, fear used to be ‘related to localized, identifiable events that were limited to a certain timeframe’, it has now increasingly become an environment that determines everyday life in the Global North. It is this paradigm of speed and fear that has formed the starting point for Hans Overvliet’s work since the mid-2000s. In Cross #2 (2007) press photos of violent events during the Second Gulf War are cut into strips and woven into fragments of fashion and architecture photography. At first sight, it is not quite clear what the image fragments in the resulting Duratrans print represent. Unlike the original war photographs, the often-graphic nature of which instant-ly fills you with horror, you need to take some time to decipher their gruesome contents. In addition to the collision of the slick realm of consumer culture with the destruction of warfare, two processes are at work here: On one hand, the cutting up and weaving of the image strips foregrounds that the photos also exist as aesthetic objects in themselves, rather than merely a means of representation that gives access to a reality elsewhere. Thus, the process of mediation and the distantiation between the viewer and the events represented are

tiation between the viewer and the events represented are foregrounded. On the other, by making the contents less readily accessible to the beholder, the images are removed from the rapid stream of catastrophic representations Virilio describes. You are compelled to pause and reflect. In distant suffering I: Syrian Skies | 1,000 days (2015), this strategy of foregrounding the process of mediation, while establishing an initial ambiguity of the material’s representative contents is developed further. Magnifications of clouds scanned from printed newspapers draw attention to their composition of different patterns of dotted ink. At the same time, the absence of the landscapes that were below the clouds in the original images invites you to enjoy the scene like you might contemplate the sky in a 17th century Dutch painting. This beauty and apparent peacefulness of the isolated clouds and the accompanying process of mediation are juxtaposed with the eerie reference to the war in Syria that is provided by the title of the work. Slowed down by the work’s seductive visual appeal, the confrontation with the painful implications of the source of the clouds unfolds itself in the foreground of your mind. These disruptions of the high-speed digital media landscape that occur during encounters with the finished work are not the only locus of Overvliet’s interventions though. A possibly even more radical interruption of what Virilio calls ‘the cult of speed’ takes place during the creation process. Instead of taking advantage of the latest software solutions to make image processing, graphic design, data collection and categorization faster and easier, Overvliet spends hundreds of hours conducting individual Google searches, cutting and gluing prints of digital images with scissors and a glue stick, and fiddling with the space bar and the return key of his undermine

gluing prints of digital images with scissors and a glue stick, and fiddling with the space bar and the return key of his old inefficiency of Overvliet’s engagement with digital technologies is a significant component of his desire to undermine the ideological framework that surrounds digital media. Overvliet’s work process rejects the logic of process optimization and efficiency that usually accompanies everyday consumer technologies. Thus, the temporally disruptive quality of his work is also established by the often make-shift digital (and non-digital) processing of its materials.

sticker carefully onto the page, an activity reminiscent of the now archaic practice of the picture card album. What seemed like an arbitrary mess of data at first, is turned into puzzle of sorts, where we are invested in giving each piece its proper place. The true relationship between the clouds and the coordinates is never disclosed, but our repetitive, concentrated engagement with each individual instance confronts us with the uncanniness of quantified space in combination with the clouds as ambiguous double references to the forces of nature and human violence.

In distant suffering IVX, i.d. of a shared cloud, the ‘book’ (201718), Overvliet includes us in his laborious creation process. Instead of a finished book, we are offered a box filled with a pile of paper sheets with a grid outline, accompanied by 1000 stickers. Each sticker shows a downloaded image of a cloud on which a set of geographical coordinates – sourced from a publicly accessible online military database – are superimposed. Here, Overvliet revisits the theme of the seemingly innocent cloud, this time connected to mapping technologies, a decisive facilitator of imperialist expansion since colonial times; ‘to conquer […] global life, one must be able to map it’ (Patel and Moore, 2017). These two components, the clouds and the mapping coordinates, are both sourced from the virtually endless public information-pool available through the internet. This makes both the images’ individual contents and the interrelationships between coordinates and clouds appear arbitrary at first. However, Overvliet gives us an assignment: We can only obtain the work if we commit to sticking all 1000 images to the pages, one by one. Over the duration of multiple hours, we are required to make decisions on the order of the images, as well as concentrate on placing each sticker carefully onto the page,

Instead of providing us with a slick and streamlined finished art object, Overvliet’s ‘book’ challenges us to join him in a slow, detailed – and potentially frustrating – engagement with contemporary media. Thus, the work doesn’t provide us with an endpoint, but instead creates a breathing space. A moment to step outside the numbing, high-speed stream of fear-inducing media spectacles, and ask ourselves the question: “What must we do?”

References Paul Virilio (2012). The Administration of Fear. Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e). Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore (2017). A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A guide to capitalism, nature, and the future of the planet. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

Acknoledgement

A long-term project like DISTANT SUFFERING is impossible to work out on your own. Apart from all the people living in my library, I also want to thank the people who made the execution and exhibitions possible: Willy van Houtum, Giel Louws, Dani Ploeger, Jorieke Rottier, Peter Steutel, Loek Overvliet, Ingrid Rollema, Robbert Jan Swiers, Rinus Roepman, Jan VerhaegheBE, Chris GreenwoodGB, Suzanne GroothuisBelgium, Alina AchenbachLB/DE, Ruben & Anne HordijkBRD, leon riekwell, Loek Grootjans, Hendrik Driessen, Harmen Eijsenga († 2017), jen en Frie GosséBE, Maarten van ’t Hof, Johan de Koning, Leni van den Berge, Ramon de Nennie († 2024), Manuel ZoiaIT, Fred van den Berge († 2017), Martina ButtiglieriIT, Fiek Smitskamp, Frank ÅsnesNO, Rolf van der Mije, Ko de Jonge, Luuk Vulders, Niek Hendriks, Mehreen HashmiPK, Klio KrajewskaGB, Stef Fridael, Mohammed Al jawariGaza, Jacob JühlDK, Klaartje Esch, Roman RejholdCZ, Kees de Valk († 2019), Riet van Gerven, Kate ŠtroblováCZ, Yvette LardinoisNO, Sasha Rose RichterDK, Christine Veraart, Virginie Gmelich Meijlingt van Dooren, Lukáš JasanskýCZ, Julia Fidder, Jan Gmelich Meijlingt († 2021), Pamela GrombacherDK, Frie J. JacobsBE, Hans Bommeljé, Jochem Weststrate, Jan-Willem van Rijnberk, Pim Steinman, Sylvia Hubrouck, Hans EnemanBE, Kris van der Hart, Cecilie BerntsDK, Huibert-Jan Vader, Hynek ŠnajdarCZ, Masoud ShahsavariSE, Rikard FåhraeusSE, Laetitia DeschampsSE, Jannike BrantåsSE, Roel van der LindenNL/CZ, Alice MáselníkováSE, Rana AnaniLB, Jörn BurmesterDK, Sebastian BernburgLB, Wilfried Agricola de CologneBRD, Yarina ButkowskaUA, Olga & Oleg KharchenkoUA, Ivan Van de CappelleBE, David DelifioraUSA, Dina MattarGaza, Raed IssaGaza, Robin Weijers, Harriët Rademakers, Weijers, piet

Raed IssaGaza, Robin Weijers, Harriët Rademakers, Ormira LulaniAL, Geert VerbekeBE, Beste GürsuTR, Helidon HalitiAL, Galid Al Kholani Al FakeehYEM, Zake PrelvukajKOS, Jürgen O. OlbrichBRD, André Smits, Tineke SchuurmansBE, Marie VerbovenBE, Adam RoussopoulosUSA, Jatun RisbaRS, Franco G. LiveraRS, Issam Al Kholani Al Fakeeh, Bo de Jong, Zeus Hoenderop, Iris Van ’t Bos, Geeske Pluijmers, Tineke Smit, Ulrike E.W. ScholderBRD, Sait ToprakTR, Dirk D. KnickhoffBRD, Elisabeth SchinkBRD, Ruggero MaggiIT, Emillio MorandiIT, GordanaSP, Silvio De GraciaBR, Chris Kors, Lutz AndersBRD, Luiz Sacilotto&Marcia RosenbergerBR, Anne-Lyke van den Elshout, Fé Wielemakers, Floor Zegers, Arjelien van Dijke, Hein Verwer, Cor de Lange, Willy van Meegen, Marlize Laport, Roula KaraferiGRC, Kees-Pieter Geschiere, Pier Pennings, peter clouthBRD, Matthis Heugen, Sonja TintelnotBRD, Erin Chang, Elizabeth Hefty-KhouryESP, Ibrahim KhouryLBN/ESP, Lucia CarotenutoARG, Nélida Torres BaltazarARG, KappaIT, Fabio BonacinaIT, and the numerous participants in the poster project I.D. OF INEQUALITY.

exhibitions / art-related activities | selection

2026 / 2027 Miniprint / Buenos AiresArgentina | Invertebrados Internacionales Curators Lucia Carotenuto & Nélida Torres Baltazar (July 2027) Pakje Kunst | small pack of art Terneuzen (February) Open Open'$ | KyivUkrain | Oleg Kharch Group& Hans Overvliet (March 05 – April 22) produzentengalerie e.V. plan-d | art initiative | DüsseldorfGermany (March 21 – April 19) | Curator Pier Pennings Cultuurcentrum BruggeBelgium | ‘TIN’ (April 10 – June 07) Curator Jan Verheaghe ik geef je mijn raam / i give you my window | Vlissingen | editie #32 in conjuction with The Liberation Festival Vlissingen May 5th (April 20 – May 31) | Curator / Sylvia Hubrouck Bloom Gallery | ValenciaSpain (April 25 - May 03) | Curator Bo de Jong 2025 KemzekeBelgium | Verbeke Foundation (November 17, 2024 – April 2025) oeuvre retrospective | Curator Marie Verboven VeniceItaly | Visione Altre Galleria (February 1 – February 16) Art direction: Adolfina de Stefani | Antonello Mantovani

2025 - continuation Den Haag | Nationaal Theater aan ’t Spui | during Movies That Matter ( Match 21 - March 29) | Curtor Fé Wielemaker Goes | Grote of Maria Magdalenakerk / Stone&Glass - IT’S IN IT Curators Willy van Megen & Marlize Laport ( July 8 - August 17 ) Terneuzen | Toonbeeld | Imagination Route 2025 Curator Arjelien van Dijke ( July 5 – September 13 ) Filmfestival ‘Film by the sea’ | i.d. of an artist’ portrait (12 – 21 September) LarissaGreece | Open Nights Festival Curator Roula Karaferi ( October 9 – October 19, 2025 ) 2024 Middelburg | Roofprintpers | Leporello (November 29, 2024 – January 1, 2025) curator Leni van den Berge A selection of my paper collages 1999 – 2012, is published in BALLUSTRADA, idiosyncratic literary magazine since 1986, volume 38 no.1/2, spring 2024 curator Ko de Jonge İzmirTurkey | Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi (May 15 – 21, 2024) curator Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi Burgh-Haamstede | Bewaerschole | MIGRATION (August 24 – September 22) curator Geeske Pluijmers KemzekeBelgium | Verbeke Foundation | winter exhibition | exhibition collages curator Marie Verboven Municipality of Middelburg | Makers Scheme: Hallways, a study / images of corridors and halls in private homes and (semi-) government buildings in Middelburg. Vlissingen | ik geef je mijn raam – I give you my window presentation project Sylvia Hubrouck a selection of poetic videos - LOOKING THROUGH THE EYE OF W. #1, in conjuction with the film festival Film by the Sea

2023 ChaskaU.S.A. | THE ARTISTAMP REVUE | Curator Adam Roussopoulos StockholmSweden | Slipvillan | Curator team Studio44

Dishoek - Bunker WWII | curator leon riekwell

KemzekeBelgium | Verbeke Foundation | all paper collages 1999 -2012 are included in the collection of collages and assemblages by Geert and Carla Verbeke-Lens selection shown at the winter exhibition collages ’23-‘24 | curator Marie Verboven AarhusDenmark | Juxtapose Art Fair | Curated by Cecilie Bernts, Pamela Grombacher, Sasha Rose Richter and Jacob Juhl Middelburg | ruimteCAESUUR with Gallery Durden and Ray | Curated by Jorieke Rottier StockholmSweden | Längholmen | KEEP ON BREATHING | Curator Masoud Shahsavari Los AngelesU.S.A. | with ruimteCAESUUR at Gallery Durden and Ray | Curated by Carlos Beltran Arechiga Middelburg | Smith Art | Curated by Johan de Koning KleveGermany | kunstverein bahnhof24 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 PragueCzech Republic | 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

Financial support Mondrian Fund SBKM / Vleeshal Middelburg Frits Lensvelt Stichting KulturrådetSweden Region StockholmSweden Awards, residencies, commissions and public collections 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, VeniceItaly | Visione Altre Galleria, Karpuchina GalleryCzech Republic, The Institute for Palestine StudiesLebanon | Palestine | London | Washington Verbeke Foundation, KemzekeBelgium 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

Hans Overvliet | DISTANT SUFFERING 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. 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. So aspects of power, politics, exclusion, censorship and the connection between artist, artwork and viewer infiltrate his multifaceted conceptual oeuvre. Martha Jager, curator Vleeshal in Middelburg about the oeuvre: 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, Albania, Germany, Lebanon, the U.S.A., Brasil, Argentina and Sweden. In 2023, his whole body of paper collages ( 1999 – 2012 ) joined Geert Verbeke’s renowned collection of collages and assemblages. In 2024 - 2025 the whole oeuvre of DISTANT SUFFERING was exhibited in the museum part of the Verbeke Foundation. All the work will then be included in the permanent collection. Hans Overvliet was born in Leiden in 1952; he lives in Middelburg and works in Vlissingen, both 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 30-year old space for contemporary art: ruimteCAESUUR.

distant suffering