Jan van Esch is a Dutch multi-media artist. His work interrogates the processes of 'giving' by exploring the underlying psychological motivations involved in the power play between giver and receiver, drawing on his background in social and health sciences and international development aid. […]
Jan van Esch is a Dutch multi-media artist. His work interrogates the processes of ‘giving’ by exploring the underlying psychological motivations involved in the power play between giver and receiver, drawing on his background in social and health sciences and international development aid.
In particular, Jan van Esch’s recent work explores how the Western world deals with (re)used clothing, using performance, installation and drawing to subvert traditional notions of the gift. Over the period of several months, he collected abandoned clothes from the streets of Berlin. Through a rite-of-passage, he gave them the attention they lacked by meticulously drawing their every fiber. Thereby, he created life-sized portraits of the garments. He then returned them to the street through performative interventions with an invitation to take, and an absolution of the things discarded.
Jan van Esch ran Nafasi Art Space in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for six years. As part of his socially engaged art practice, he has collaborated with a number of art collectives and institutions, most recently as the curator of the community programme for the citizenship project presented in collaboration with ZK/U Berlin at documentafifteen. His individual works have been exhibited and acquired by private collections and public institutions including the Alliance Française Dar es Salaam, Kampala Biennale, ZK/U Berlin Art Week, OSCAM, Anna Nordlander Museum and the Urban Nation Museum.
In the current exhibition “Talking…& Other Banana Skins” his work “ZUM VERGEBEN- TO FORGIVE” is displayed.
