H+F
Han Nefkens started to collect art in 2000. The H+F Collection, named after himself and his partner Felipe, is in long-term loan to various museums in The Netherlands and abroad. Nowadays Han Nefkens is not only active as a collector but also as an initiator of international art projects, often in collaboration with museums and other art institutions.
Fundació Han Nefkens
The Han Nefkens Foundation is a private non-profit organisation that was set up in Barcelona in 2009 with the aim of promoting the production of contemporary artworks. The mission is to stimulate artistic creation in Barcelona by offering international artists an opportunity to create artworks and interventions in the city, and to promote other fields of contemporary creation.
Han Nefkens
According to Han Nefkens, sharing is the antidote to loneliness, and he does so through his artistic and anti-AIDS projects and his writing. In 1995, he made his debut with the autobiographical novel Bloedverwanten (“Parents”), which was followed by Twee lege stoelen (“Two empty chairs”, 2006) and De gevlogen vogel (“The bird flew”, 2008). Nefkens also writes short pieces, “vignettes”.
Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat was born in 1957 in Qazvin, Iran, and currently lives in New York.
Neshat has had numerous solo exhibitions at galleries and museums worldwide, including the National Museum of Contemporary Arts, Athens; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Serpentine Gallery, London; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, León, Spain; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Castello di Rivoli, Turin, and the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna. She has won a number of prizes, including the Golden Lion Award at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999 and the Lillian Gish Prize in 2006.
Her first feature film, Women Without Men, won the Silver Lion Award at the 66th Venice International Film Festival in 2009.