Johanna Van Overmeir

Johanna Van Overmeir (Duffel, 1983), finds patterns related with her surroundings.
She translate a pattern in an action, ritual, installation or video,… With attention she looks for the “invisible” connection, a pattern that she transforms in a new visual shape. Like an archaeologist, she delves into the matter, but instead of excavating something, she add something into the space. With a repetitive movement she makes a sculpture, drawing in the room. We look at it, we undergo, we do not literally participate in her performances,… but through the duration, we become an involved party, a cocoon embraces us and Johanna Van Overmeir becomes one with the space. She reveals a transition into the space. Spectators feel a power that will remain palpable for a certain time.

In the recurring “Heart In Fact” installation she makes collages of the spectators. She takes a snapshot that connects these people in a certain space to each other. The names of the spectators serve as the full title of the work.

Johanna Van Overmeir graduated at KASK in Ghent in 2011. During her master’s period she is doing an internship in New York. She works as a set photographer for Noritoshi Hirakawa, participates in “Factory, who?”, a performance festival of Flux Factory in Queens, has a solo exhibition and makes one of her first videos “ I swear to the Lord ”. She graduates with P(S)5, an artwork of five video’s, purchased by KASK.

After her studies, she works closely with her former mentor Anne-mie Van Kerckhoven, Johanna Van Overmeir makes “Lick Thy Wounds” (2012) a performance in her studio. In 2015, Johanna Van Overmeir creates a performance for the Moscow Art Biennale, curated by Bart De Baere (MUHKA, Antwerp), Defne Ayas (Witte de With, Rotterdam) and Nicolaus Schafhausen (Kunsthalle, Vienna). She creates an installation called “Hourglass” for the Muzee triennial (2018). That year she participates in “Poppositions”, an art fair in Brussels, where she shows her mail art project “Family 2018” for the first time in Belgium. This work was created in secret in Saint Petersburg at the invitation of curator Nastya Skvortsova. Johanna’s third “Family 2021” was created at the art weekend at Coppejans gallery in honour of the centenary of Joseph Beuys. In 2023 she shows at Eva Steynen Gallery HIF2301, an interactive installation that she repeats on frequently base.