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 www.ikbeneengod.one
click here for my condensed portfolio click here for my extended portfolio click here for my C.V.
i.d. of a self-perpetuating cloud edition #1
A project by Bo de Jong & Bert Dorrestijn May 03, 2025 | KipVis / Sloeweg – Vlissingen
For the project FLAGS FOR FREEDOM, held on the lawn in front of the art workplace Kipvis in Vissingen on March 3, 2025, I used nine yellow cleaning cloths as a backdrop for a cloud / explosion with the words ‘never again?’ written across it in nine different languages.
Work cloud / explosion; nine texts in Candara, varying languges, varying font; one question: ‘never again?’; nine viscose cloths Albert Heijn, yellow,38 x 40 cm; nine textile transfers for inkjet, A4, Quantore; Inkjetprinter Canon TS 700; Ink: 123inkt.nl, CU-581C XXL.
i.d. of a self-perpetuating cloud edition #2
Jorieke Rottier suggested that I revisited this work for a group exhibition at Bloom Gallery in Valencia in April 2026.
Work
Doubled cloud / explosion; 15 texts in Candara, varying languges, varying font; 15 textile transfers for inkjet, A4, Quantore; one question: ‘never again?’; 15 viscose cloths Albert Heijn, yellow,38 x 40 cm; 15 Wibra towel hooks, item no. 1541.3671; Inkjetprinter Canon TS 700 | Ink: 123inkt.nl, CU-581C XXL;
i.d. of a self-perpetuating cloud edition #3
IK GEEF JE MIJN RAAM
I GIVE YOU MY WINDOW | edition #32
An art initiative by Sylvia Hubrouck in Vlissingen
April 20 - May 31, 2026
On the eve of our commemoration and liberation celebrations on May 4 and 5, 2026, we as a global society are facing a record number of approximately 130 armed conflicts, with war crimes and genocide dancing across our screens in 4K image quality on a daily basis. Unfortunately, Sudan, Gaza and the West Bank, Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Afghanistan, and Myanmar are at the forefront of these conflicts.
This, combined with the inevitable natural disasters, has resulted in some 100 million people worldwide being displaced: another record number.
So despite the promise inherent in all those treaties, we are in the midst of one of the most serious humanitarian crises of our time on this planet.
Never again should have any other meaning in our current, changing times than it originally did, but the system of pure, ruthless pursuit of profit and power that it warned against at the time is still alive and well, producing equally horrific effects time and time again.
So be true to what an entire continent is built on, namely the slogan “never again,” and shout it loudly in every known language and every spoken dialect in every direction: never again, exclamation mark.
i.d. of a self-perpetuating cloud edition #4
Kunstverein plan-d | Düsseldorf
March 21 – April 19, 2026
i.d. of a self-perpetuating cloud edition #5
Contribution to the project ‘Pakje Kunst’ (Package of Art)
20 photo prints on 5 mm foam of a double explosion with the text ‘never again?’ in 20 languages and dialects. Next page: actual size of the works.
February, 2026
for Bloom Gallery | ValenciaSpain the editions | A.P.’s
The current world order, proclaimed by the West after the Second World War, is on its last legs. The American fascist Stephen Miller – chief adviser to the American president – proclaimed this with great enthusiasm in an interview with Jack Tapper1: Jake, we live in a law (sic!) or sorry, we live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international nicities and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time. For the record: with his niceties, Miller disqualified the UN Charter in one fell swoop, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Geneva Convention, all human rights treaties, etc.2
From the imperialistic point of view of the empire America that makes sense: war and reconstruction are opportunities to acquire money and to perpetuate the existing power structure. The oligarchy that supports Trump and his clique is perfectly clear about this. To name a few – and then you have almost all of them in one room – Peter Thiel's Palantir for surveillance, Musk for media and global satelite communications, Bezos for goods, Larry Ellison Oracle&Tiktok, Mark Zuckerberg Meta Platforms Inc. Someone like Shoshana Zuboff wrote about this concentration of power in disturbing terms.3 What makes the issue even more urgent is that the global complex of production, reproduction, communication and money circulation is in the hands of fewer than 10 people.
hands of fewer than ten people. This is truly unique in human history. What is downright life-threatening is that, in addition, these ten people are all fervent supporters of the most radical forms of apartheid and/or Zionism.
Orwell wrote about the results of the communication of this clique – the government and oligarchy together –spreading their lies, bullshit, half-truths and, here and there, a kind of truth in his book “1984”: The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth. The Party said you had to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. That was their last, most important command.4
Paul Verillo shared some thoughts with us about the medium itself: he expressed deep scepticism about new technologies. Virilio is not opposed to progress, but warns about the price we have to pay for it. He draws our attention in particular to the power wielded by the few people who know how to use these new technologies. Virilio emphasises in all his work that reality is no longer dependent on time and space. Thanks to the technology of the virtual world, people can be everywhere at the same time and place, but at the same time they are physically present nowhere at all. The loss of importance of your own city or country in favour of a globalising world implies the loss of universal rights and democracy, which is at odds with how important information is in these processes. 5
According to Hannah Arendt, the greatest danger of a government spreading or propagating
or propagating its own truth is not that people will believe the lie. The real danger is that no one will believe anything anymore. When the line between truth and lies is systematically blurred, citizens lose the ability to think, judge and act independently. The result is a deeprooted cynicism that paralyses society. 6
Right-wing radical ideologues such as Donald Trump's former chief political strategist Steve Bannon have understood this very well: he instructed the corporate media with the demand: Flood the zone. A political strategy in which a political figure aims to gain media attention, disorient opponents and distract the public from undesirable reports by rapidly forwarding large volumes of newsworthy information to the (mss)media. The strategy came to public light after Bannon told Michael Lewis in 2018 that The Democrats don't matter. . . The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit. From Fox to CNN, all corporate media obediently carry out this fatal strategy.
Finally, the position of the consumer. 94.1% of Dutch people aged 15 and older are active on social media, which are considered free media sources.8 So we can be brief about that position: If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.9
I am meandering through these observations to get to my point about why I created this work. The few billionaires are taking the global population on a journey towards a war economy.
which, as history teaches us, will result in a terrible chain of new wars; after all, the war supplies must be used up. Let us not be under any illusions about this: the genocide in Gaza and the war crimes in Ukraine are and were broadcasted daily in 4K on our free screens. Which has not changed anything or is not changing anything for the better. Meanwhile, the corporate media carefully avoid mentioning the Sudan, the Kurds, the West Bank, Iran, etc. The imbecilic antics of a demented grandfather with his shit provides entertainment and thereby advertising revenue.
So, after 80 years of peace and prosperity in the North – at the expense of the South – we find ourselves within reach of a self-perpetuating war machine.
Generated by a dozen old men and a single old women who, thanks to their psychopathology, were able to amass billions by helping themselves generously to taxpayers' money.
A war machine stained by money saved on health-care, education, art and culture, and paid for with the lives of young people.
Whereby the corporate media show what really matters: legitimising openly and blatantly corrupt governments that economically strip their populatione in favour of billionaires, occupy its cities with the army - as a harbinger of what awaits us every-where - and legitimises / normalises the bombing of sovereign countries, the murder of civilians in boats, the kidnapping of sovereign representatives and the theft of other people's property through hijackings; by making corruption part of everyday life, by protecting paedophiles
paedophiles and, above all, by showing that the clique that controls all this is untouchable . . .
When you think it's all not so bad: Paul Virilio had a stark reminder for us: When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane you also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution. Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress.10
So, this is also an invitation to think about the juxtaposition towards which, for example, AI is heading. Incidentally – it seems like a recurring rupture – this AI is a technology that no one asked for. On the one hand, AI promises to ease the daily routine and, in parallel, is used to identify bombing targets in practices like how the genocide in Gaza is functioning as an empirical field of research.
AI is used to multiplylies or re-write history, but it is also capable of solving essential medical issues.
Above all, AI will increase the amount and density of information and accumulate the speed at which it reaches us. Only to evaporate from our consciousness again at the same speed. Parallel, AI will continuously and with impunity cumulatively steal our personal information and space and will reduce our privacy to zero.
Let's end with Shoshana Zuboff in El País11 with perhaps an even more important and threatening aspect: AI is simply surveillance capitalism continuing to evolve and expand with some new me-thodo-logies, but still based on theft. (. . .)
new methodologies, but still based on theft.
(. . .)
They (Big Tech, HO) are terrified of the law. That it would come into their sphere and say: this is illegal, this is theft, you can’t do this. The only place where that law would be coming from any time in the near future is Europe. We can have surveillance capitalism, or we can have democracy, but we cannot have both. Because they are fundamentally at odds with one another.
So, in order to get a grip on self-perpetuating wars, we will have to build in some delayed time again and rediscover the values of the object, space and time. Because ultimately, these categories give meaning to existence.
Subsequently – totally naive of course, but still – let's start using communication again as a substantive method to bring us closer together. In grownup terms - at the macro level: let the diplomats prevail over the generals, ecomomy over war. Planet over Profit. Put listening back at the heart of international relations. Where concession is an intrinsic part of communicative negotiation, where the conversation about shared morality and living conditions are starting points. Restart cultural education.
Connect the interntional agora with the local ones. S0, at the meso and micro levels: let us reclaim public space and time and make the agora the physical centre of our local contacts once again. Where the converstion should be about how to use our knowledge to save our planet in stead of howof how to start a war based on single
how to start wars, based on single national political en economical in-trest. Realize that if we do not listen to the cry of the planet, we are truly lost. That all actions that are not aimed at solving our environmental problems will work exclusively to our disadvantage. Will work fatally to our disadvantage.
Never again may in our current, fluid times have a different connotation than its origin, the methodology of the system that it warned against is still very much alive and will generate consequences just as horrific. Perhaps even more horrific . . .
So be faithful to what an entire continent is built upon, i.e. the slogan never, never again and shout it out loud in every known language and every spoken dialect in every direction. Never, never again exclamation mark
1. Stephen Miller with Jack Tapper CNN | 05/01/26 | from 5’50”
2. For an overview of legislation and regulations: International legislation, see Utrecht University Library
3. Shoshana Zuboff | The Age of Surveillance Capitalism / The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power | profile books 2018
4. George Orwell, 1984 Secker & Warburg, 1914
5. Paul Verilio | Speed and Politics: An Essay on Dromology. New York: Semiotext(e), 1977 [1986] Paul Verilio | War and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception. London: Verso, 1989.
6. Arendt, H. Truth and Politics. In Between Past and Future. New York: Penguin Books, 1967.
7. ‘Flood the zone with sh*t’: Steve Bannon’s guide to influence 10/4/2025 | Justin Hempson-Jones CAPX-Centre for Policy Studies
8. Onderzoek Trimbos instituut | 2025
9. A 2010 viral tweet by Tim O'Reilly crediting a quotation by Andrew Lewis
10. Paul Verilio | Politics of the Very Worst, New York: Semiotext(e), 1999
11. Shoshana Zuboff | El Pais English December 15, 2025 - 20:36 CET
Middelburg, maandag 26 januari 2026
Martha Jager, curator Vleeshal in MiddelburgNL about the oeuvre (2023) after a studio visit: 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, in 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.
click here for my condensed portfolio click here for my extended portfolio click here for my C.V.
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 www.ikbeneengod.one
Since 2013, by means of the ongoing art-series distant suffering, the Dutch artist Hans Overvliet (Leiden, 1952) 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, 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.
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 total oeuvre of distant suffering was exhibited in the museum part of the Verbeke Foundation. All works were subsequently included in the permanent collection.
Next to his art-work Hans is, together with his wife Willy van Houtum, the founder and every day guardian of ruimteCAESUUR, the 31-year old space for contemporary art in Middelburg in the province of Zeeland.
