Hans Claus

Not only is he a painter, a sculptor, a photographer and a writer-performer, but for 38 years he was also the director of the prison the city of Oudenaarde in Belgium. He retired three months ago. If you want to know what is wrong with the current detention system in our society, about the political struggles involved in creating human conditions in our houses of detention, then not only should you listen to his interviews or read his scientific writings, but you should also get to know his sculptures and his paintings, for they speak about the human condition in its broadest sense. About opening the gates of our narrowed minds and about the self-inflicted detention that so many humans call ‘my freedom’. For him, art is no therapy, but an absolute and inevitable necessity in his life. He is the author of the Declaration of 30 November, a plea for necessary reforms to create a society where people LIVE TOGETHER, freed from the greed for money, and where they can appreciate one another and the nature they live in.