Post Pollution

6 February 2026

Willem de Haan fished 99 plastic bottles out of the Mediterranean Sea and sent them to 99 international artists with one assignment:
turn them into a work of art.
During the presentation of Post Pollution at Gallery Vriend van Bavink/Raam Art Space, all works will be sold anonymously and for the same price. Bottles that are not sold will be returned to 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 Sea in May 2024, I happened to be picking up plastic waste from a beach on that same sea.

At the end of April, I headed south with my tent. The renovation of my studio took much longer than planned. It was unworkable, so I decided to get away for a while.

Winter camping may be all the rage, but I prefer sunshine and twenty degrees. It was cold. In the Dordogne, fire pits burned in the vineyards to prevent frost damage. The campsite where we stayed in the summer of 2023 turned out not to be open yet.

That offered a new perspective. That summer, we skipped the Mediterranean because it was too crowded, but now it was different. We settled in a small village, in an Airbnb.

In the rain, I trudged across the beach, looking for plastic waste. All the plastic collected during the holiday goes home in a bag to be sorted out later in the studio.

At the end of the two weeks, it became sunny and warm. The campsite opened and we stayed there for a few more days before returning home.

The bag of French plastic ended up in the studio with the other bags of unsorted material. Later, it will be sorted by colour or labelled “uninteresting” = workshop material. In hindsight, this is a shame, because I could have used it well with the bottle.

More than a year later, Willem de Haan asked me if I wanted to participate in Post Pollution at Galerie Vriend van Bavink.

I received a box that sat next to my door for several weeks, waiting for the right moment to start this new project.
In the meantime, the idea stayed with me. However, the bottle that eventually emerged from the box did not quite meet my expectations.
Various versions followed. And each time, one thought kept coming back: the idea that the bottle might end up back in the sea.
That realisation ultimately became one of the deciding factors for the final result.

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.