The Art of Documenting the Undocumented

Bart Plantenga - It’s December 2007, and the young Dutch artist Domenique Himmelsbach de Vries has called together some adventurous, non-acrophobic squatter volunteers. He wants them to help him climb a gigantic billboard along the A28 highway outside the city of Zwolle and unfurl an 1,100-square-foot banner across the billboard. In 5-foot-high letters, the banner declares simply: “I FEEL FOR YOUR MISERY” (“IK BEN BEGAAN VAN JULLIE ELLENDE”).

“The question is: What can an artist do to alleviate some of the misery in this world?” Himmelsbach says as we sit in his ramshackle studio. Lees meer.

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