due to unforeseen circumstances the artists cannot be there
studio complex kipvis Dreesstraat 2 | Flushing – the Netherlands
June 1, 2025 12:00 – 17:00 PM
At a time when cities are being bombed and dreams are being killed under the rubble of iron and fire, my artistic initiative A painting against every missile isbeinglaunchedasaresilientconscience,andanaesthetic act that brings back to life its meaning, for man its voice and for the earth its image and colour.
Mohamed Harb_art – painting front page
due to unforeseen circumstances the artists cannot be there
On Sunday afternoon, June 1 from 12 noon - 5 p.m. studio complex Kipvis in Vlissingen, the Ntherlands held a so called open studio day with its 18 artist.
Hans Overvliet made his studio partially available for his friends / colleagues from Gaza and Ukraine who suffer in a in a massacre that the corporate media misunderstandably call “war”. On display are copies from art works by Ahmed Muhanna, Olena Golub, Mohamed Harb, Marwan Nassar, Sohail Salem, Oleg Kharch, Raed Issa and Maisara Baroud.
The legitimation of this intimate exhibition we derived from Sohail Salem: My small, sharp, and disturbed drawings encapsulate fear and anger in a narrow notebook space. Quick sketches because they had a sense of calm. Considering that artwork is produced in its context, it is more than just the distribution of color on empty spaces; it is a state of internal accumulation that I express as a miniature portrait of my condition, ambitions, hopes, and pain.
This modest catalogue contains the exhibited work, concluded with An SOS by Sohail Salemfrom which the above quotation is taken.
Middelburg, May 29, 2025 | hans overvliet
the works | the artists
73) DNIPRO.
The city of Dnipro is a large industrial, scientific and cultural center of Ukraine. And this city has always had students from many countries of the former USSR and the socialist camp. Until the mid-80s, I had to be in this environment. Moreover, it was in Dnipro that I mastered basic artistic training in a semi-underground private studio.Petrovsky, Chernyavsky.
When the red bellies came to power in these regions a century ago, they began to destroy the old order and reorganize administrative units. And their janissaries carved their ostensibly Ukrainian surnames into toponymic local names.
Apparently, this haste was justified, because the time that was allowed to them, who also appointed it, was filled with uncertainty. A new time has come, but the looming threat is the same because the dwarf Fuehrer continues to dream about the Denazification and demilitarization of every Ukrainian town or such a delicacy as the unconquered Dnipro. They hit it with rockets and hit it with Shaheds.
74) Surrender to Russian! Follow the drone. A very interesting and instructive story happened on the front. "MAVIC captured a Russian soldier. A Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance officer interviewed by Kyiv Post explains that the drone led the Russian to a point where he could surrender. "It happens that MAVIC makes a landing with a note like: "Go and surrender, they won't kill you and they will feed you." And it happens that the (Russian) soldier himself raises the white flag, or shows it with gestures or raises his hands. And then MAVIC descends low and flies slowly, showing the way," the military officer noted. According to the aerial reconnaissance officer, the MAVIC drone even "nods its camera" during communication with the military, showing "yes" or "no."
80) February 7, 2024.
My wife and I went to the kitchen for breakfast. Suddenly, somewhere nearby we heard a sound, what was that? We had to leave the room. But we felt a repetition of the situation and from the direc-tion of Odessa Square we could smell black smoke and burning. Then there was silence and distant sounds of sirens. We took a risk and headed towards the incident. The smell of burning was getting stronger. It was scary and disturbing, but we still wanted to find out and possibly help the victims.
Closer we realized that these were drone strikes and hit a nonresidential building where the car repair shops were the most affected. We also learned that nearby, across the main road, there was a hit on the upper floors of a large residential building. No one was allowed there anymore.
All this happened no more than 700 meters from our apartment.
Drawing with ink pens on school notebooks, hoping for an everlasting light, despite the constant noise of airplanes flying over Gaza and the sounds of explosions, which cause headaches, loss of concentration, and sometimes even temporary memory loss. With my trembling hands, I try to draw without hesitation and post my sketches on social media whenever I have the opportunity. The cold blue page is beginning to ignite and grow hotter from the interaction of my friends.
My drawings are a message to the world, a scream for help. A message to my friends that I am still well. Friends, relatives, and neighbors have disappeared. Beautiful Gaza has been destroyed. With simple tools, I buy them from a street vendor in Deir al-Balah. My priorities include buying groceries and paying the rent for the garage where I live, especially during wars of exploitation and high prices. There's alsonoplacetowork,theplace is chaotic, and my family is crowded. These small notebooks and pens were my refuge, and I placed them in my small bag withoutworry,asifIwerewriting my memoirs daily. Every day, a story or a tale inspires me with one or more drawings. I never planned for this to be met with the approval of my friends and for them to
the approval of my friends and for them to share my stories with them.
My first drawing was of a violet flower, when I asked the good fairy to turn into a rose . . . With courage, her fellow violets dared not dare to do so, based on the story of the ambitious violet by Gibran Khalil Gibran. It is the violet that did not pay attention to betrayal and intimidation. I did not migrate to the south at the beginning of the war, despite the extreme danger, but the occupation army arrested me when they stormed my residence in Gaza City, the southern neighborhood of Al-Rimal, and separated me from my family, forcing them to flee on foot to the city of Deiral-Balah. Thiswason January 18, 2023; 105 days after the war.
The soldiers interrogated me while I was handcuffed and blindfolded, and they wrote a letter in Hebrew on my forehead. The men around me whispered about the meaning of this and whether it meant the army would kill me first?! After long hours of interrogation, they released me to walk for about seven hours as well.Iarrivedinthe cityofDeiralBalah. The second day of searching, without any evidence or information. A call led me to my family's location. The idea of drawing seemed ridiculous.
drawing seemed ridiculous. What could I draw in such circumstances?! And why? My brain was damaged from the sound of intense bombing that still resonated in my head.
I began drawing in Deir al-Balah. It was a mission for me to release a visual store of misery I had stored in my mind. This was most brutal when I was forced to pass overthe bodiesof martyrsduring the displacement. Overcrowding of the displaced and listening to the news on the radio at high volume,Itriedtoseparatemyself from my surroundings every morning and draw. My small, sharp, and disturbed drawings encapsulate fear and anger in a narrow notebook space. Quick sketches because they had a sense of calm. Considering that artwork is produced in its context, it is more than just the distribution of color on empty spaces; it is a state of internal accumulation that I express as a miniature portrait of my condition, ambitions, hopes, and pain.
Colophon
Art works:
Ahmed Muhanna, Olena Golub, Mohamed Harb, Marwan Nassar, Sohail Salem, Oleg Kharch, Raed Issa and Maisara Baroud.
Exhibition
Studio complex Kipvis | Dreesstraat 2 – Flushing – the Netherlands
June 1, 2025 12:00 – 17:00 PM
Curator | production | catalogue hans overvliet | www.hansovervliet.com
Thanks
The artists
Cor de Lange | helped building the wall
Giel Louws | helped installing the works
due to unforeseen circumstances the artists cannot be there studio complex kipvis June 1, 2025
Dreesstraat 2 | Flushing – the Netherlands