Hans Defer (1968) lives and works in Ostend, Belgium. From an early age he had the ambition to be an artist but abandoned art in 1990. He produced nothing until 2009.

The inability to communicate with his deeply autistic son left him with many questions.
Questions that he felt could only be adressed through art. So he took up where he left in 1990.
The increasing noise in his work symbolises the loss of communication. Without communication we fall back on ourselves to make sense of the world around us. In his small studio he creates a continuum of works: drawings, paintings, photographs and videos that reflect his main obsessions. 
In his visual language he uses elements from film noir and crime scene photography. 
In a crime scene, as in the autistic perception, crucial elements that are needed to construct a reliable image of reality are missing. 
His works are recognizable by the blue gray colours and faded forms and silhouettes.

The viewer can't focus his gaze on the image. It is blurred and doesn't offer a way out.

His works include 'Earth is the only alien planet':(a video installation), 'A history of infamy': (a series of photographs about crime, autism and the instability of the past), 'Amnesia': (a spacial installation about the Gang of Nivelles, Belgium's most famous cold case), 'A house is not a home' (on view at Watou Kunstenfestival 2019) and 'Memories of the space age' (about the consequences of memory,entropy, love and napalm and the dreams of dead astronauts.)

His photographs are the subject of a series of digital and physical manipulations. 
He constantly reworks older versions of his work, rephotographing or photocopying them again and again. 
Sometimes he buries them until they're almost completely disintegrated. 
After these processes new images emerge. Time slows down and freeze
Photographs become memories of events that never happened. 
A past that doesn't exist. Destroying his memories of the original context of the image by adding noise and distortion. 
His approach is more influenced by punk rock and noise music than by traditional art.

His works don't carry a title but instead have a catalogue number, so no interpretation is imposed upon the viewer.Tentoonstellingen (selectie)