Hans Claus (Kortrijk, 1962), is a jack-of-all-trades: 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 of the city of Oudenaarde. 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.
As a prison director, he was one of Belgium’s most notable advocates of a human attitude towards convicted criminals. “It is a dangerous dossier because it symbolizes the contempt of all public institutions. Our society succeeds in declaring the production of goods and gadgets its core mission and in presenting the common care for fellow human beings as a cost item.” His baldest quote? “Prisons don’t work. We don’t need then!”. Or somewhat more nuanced: “I am amazed that the government is still not limiting the number of detainees with a maximum capacity. Because full is full, but not in prison. After thirty years of overcrowding, penitentiary quotas are still not worth considering. Making it legally impossible for a new detainee to end up on a mattress under the table is apparently a bridge too far.”
But above all, Hans Claus is a human being, and this condition is reflected in all his actions. “Just when you discover that you were just trying to survive, when you open yourself up and think you can change that life, it’s time to say goodbye. That is one of the dramas of our human race. Everyone always must learn everything again and make the same mistakes. Eat, drink, mate, die.”
He is the author of the Declaration of 30 November (https://novemberverklaring.eu/en/), 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. In 6 outlines, the declaration sketches a society in which the economy serves people and nature, where spiritual values are more important than material things and where virtual growth is also questioned. “Not only is our planet finite, but our virtual world is finite as well.”