Untitled (Golf series)

Untitled (Golf series)

I love repetition. Making new versions of the same work over and over again, I have always found it difficult to let go of the subject after a work is finished. Of the Golf GTI series I have made so far 15 different paintings, drawings and photographs. After completing the installation 'Amnesia' (2016) about Belgium's coldest cold case, The gang of Nivelles, who were responsible for a series of violent attacks and robberies of warehouses between 1982 and 1985 in which 28 people died, I thought I was done with the subject. But some images persist. The Golf GTI is the car the gang used as a getaway for their last murderous raid. After setting fire to the car they vanished into the night and into history. No suspect has ever been positively identified but there are indications of inside knowledge and probable complicity by individual policemen in the attacks.
Some images persist because they have symbolic value. The burnt out Golf GTI has become a symbol and a reminder of the failing of Belgian justice and democracy...

2018-2020
Hans Defer

Hans Defer