Hans Aarsman’s (b. 1951) activities are best described as field work. Getting his hands dirty and looking for the facts. Experiencing things for himself, where nothing is too small or insignificant and then takes photographs or creates a story from it.
“There are times when I don’t understand what I’m doing myself. There’s an inexhaustible curiosity about how everything works, let’s just leave it at that. And in a more playful and not purely scientific way. In various theatres in the Netherlands last year, I performed my fourth one-man show about my field work: Dokter Aarsman. My photographic work has been shown several times at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. I love reflecting on a high-profile exhibition I made in 2009 for Municipal Acquisitions at the Stedelijk Museum. It’s an award-winning catalogue of: Off The Record. I teach doctors at Radboudumc and OLVG to observe without scans and without protocols. The cold-case teams I’m invited to are also rather exciting. I sometimes talk about my discoveries on talk shows, and this year I appeared on Beau. I wrote a novel, Twee hoofden, één kussen, and wrote various theatre monologues. In 2019, I sang a Schumann song in the Concertgebouw accompanied by the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. Several books have been published of my work, including Hollandse Taferelen, a report in words and images of a year of wandering through the Netherlands in a motorhome. When I returned after that year, I also made Aarsmans Amsterdam, a new look at my hometown, in words and images. Every Thursday, the Volkskrant newspaper features the Aarsman Collection, in which I lurk over photos like a detective with a magnifying glass. A collection of a selection of the 2014-2021 Aarsman Collection has just been published: De ene die alles ziet.

The proceeds of the Artists in Residence project are donated to the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. The Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds aims to encourage inspiration, purpose, and social interconnection for everyone in the Netherlands by investing in cultural projects together with its partners. The Cultuurfonds supports and helps realize projects of cultural organizations and artists by raising funds and handing out awards for outstanding work.