Post Pollution

6 February 2026

Is an exhibition by Willem de Haan and 99 artists.
All participating artists were sent a plastic bottle that he had fished out of the Mediterranean Sea a year earlier, with a single brief: turn it into a work of art.
During the presentation of Post Pollution at Gallery Vriend van Bavink/Raam Art Space, all the works were sold anonymously and for the same price. Bottles that were not sold were thrown back into the sea.
The project raises questions about responsibility, guilt and the role of art: can art be more than just a mirror? Can it contribute to real change?

When Willem fished the bottles out of the Mediterranean in May 2024, I happened to be picking up plastic waste myself, from a beach on that very same sea. Here’s what happened: at the end of April, I set off for the south of France with my tent, because my studio had become unusable. The renovation of the studio building was taking much longer than planned, which was very frustrating. I thought it would be better to get away for a while.
Winter camping may well be all the rage, but I’m still better off with sunshine and twenty degrees. It was cold. In the Dordogne, fire pits were burning in the vineyards to prevent frost damage. The campsite where we’d stayed in the summer of 2023 turned out not to be open yet.
That offered a new perspective. That summer we’d given the Mediterranean a miss because it was too busy, but now things were different. We settled in a small village, in an Airbnb. In the rain, I trudged along the beach, searching for plastic waste. All the plastic I’d collected during the holiday went home in a bag to be sorted out later in the studio.
The French bag of plastic waste ended up in my studio with all the other bags of unsorted material. Every now and then, I sort through all the bags. There are then two destinations: art or workshops. This is followed by another sorting process. You get the picture: the French beach waste that I could have put to good use for the Post Pollution bottle was, unfortunately, no longer traceable.

76 bottles have been sold, including mine.

Artists Willem de Haan &
Carolien Adriaansche, Erik Alkema, Silvana Araoz-Fraser, Salim Bayri, Boris de Beijer, Eva van Bemmelen, Marcel van den Berg, Hazel van Berkel, Julien Berthier, Beni Bischof, Zena Van Den Block, Jhonie van Boeijen, Aline Bouvy, Stijn ter Braak, Tessel Braam, Casper Braat, Inez de Brauw, Elsemarijn Bruys, Koos Buster, Teun Castelein, Bobbi Cleij, Jaume Clotet, Mélanie Corre, Aukje Dekker, Bob Demper, Mischa Doorenweerd, Azul Ehrenberg, Brian Elstak, Lisa Ertel, Paul Faassen, Roselyn Flach, Neil Fortune, Peggy Franck, Maaike Fransen, Maika Garnica, Travis A. G. Geertruida, Isa Grütter & Mick Johan, Ehsan Ul Haq, Daan den Houter, Saskia Noor van Imhoff, Susanna Inglada, Lisa Ijeoma, Karin Iturralde Nurnberg, Anouk Kruithof, Clinton Kabena, Annelies Kamen, Esther Kokmeijer, John Körmeling, Koen Kievits, Lily Lanfermeijer, Harold Lechien, Gaston Lisak, Noël Loozen, Louise Delanghe, Max van Loon, Josep Maynou, Peter Morrens, Edison Ng, Ted Noten, Navid Nuur, Bonnie Ogilvie, Bas Oussoren, Alice Pandolfo, Roma Pas, Yemo Park, Bruin Parry, Marta Rios Piza, Sander Plug, Otso Prunnila, Maria Roosen, Seulbin Roh, Redouan Rahmoun, Hester Oerlemans, Paul de Reus, Diana Scherer, Jaap Scheeren, Simone Schuffelen, Shervin/e Sheikh Rezaei, Anan Striker, Koen Taselaar, Tinkebell, Jan Tromp, Marnix van Uum, Frans van Hoek, Wouter van de Koot, Maurits Verstraete, Kasper de Vos, Herman de Vries, Lotte Werkema, Theo Wesselo, Anna Weberberger, Domas van Wijk, Wumen & Ioana Georgescu, Mickey Yang, Iriée Zamblé, Sietske Zandbergen, Esmee van Zeeventer, Zindzi Zwietering & Das Leben Am Haverkamp.

All photographs were taken by me, except for the artwork. That photograph was taken by Willem de Haan.
For more information, visit Raam Art Space.