Sara van Vliet

In the summer of 2024, I started documenting my solo cycling journeys through short video vlogs, originally intended for friends and family. What started as a casual form of sharing gradually became a more integrated part of my practice. Almost a year later, I now realize that the act of long-distance cycling itself and making those vlogs became a extension of my artistic research.

For a long time, I kept my athletic and artistic lives separate. I competed in long-distance speed skating at a high level, while simultaneously pursuing art at the art academy. Both environments urged me to choose, to commit fully to one discipline. And they were right in one respect: focus is necessary for depth. I eventually stepped away from competitive sports, but the physical commitment, the repetition, and the mental endurance that defined that part of my life never disappeared.

In recent years, I've been searching for a way to bring these two apparently distant practices, art and endurance sport, into conversation. Both rely on discipline, dedication, and a capacity for reflection.

Cycling, especially over long distances, offers a particular kind of mental space: a state of slowness, absorption, and plate awareness. It is within that space that new ideas surface, often uninvited.

This summer, I will embark on a 4,500 km solo cycling trip from Antwerp to the North Cape. I'll travel for approximately 60 days, averaging 120 kilometers per day. Along the way, I will make a daily drawing on A5 format using oil pastel, always from direct observation, always from the landscape immediately in front of me once I've set up camp for the night. These works will form a analouge record of the journey.

I'm particularly interested in the influence of repetition, fatigue, and solitude on the act of drawing. What happens when you commit to a gesture every day, under changing conditions and in a state of physical depletion? How does the body shape the hand, and how does movement shape perception?

The resulting works will come together in three forms:
– a publication with all 60 drawings
– a series of 10 larger paintings developed from the visual memory of the journey
– a short film

These will be presented as one body of work in a solo exhibition at NQ Gallery in Antwerp in November 2025. It will mark a first step in articulating the relationship between artistic and athletic labor, between the studio and the road.

The publication will serve as a tangible reflection of the project: a slower, more enduring counterbalance to the daily video vlogs I will share (on Instagram @cafedebedstee) during the trip. If you're interested in receiving a copy or supporting the project, you can register your interest through this form.

Of my recent work I still have no decent photos, but you can find new paintings on my other Instagram: @doorsaravanvliet :)

Where it all starts // 195cm x 170cm // Plaster, acrylic and spray paint

Waking up // 195 x 160 cm // Acrylic, ink, ecoline and airbrush on canvas // 2024

Watching mountains in Zurich // 150 x 170 cm // Acrylic, plaster and spray paint on canvas

7 weeks in an Opel Corsa // 300 x 180 cm // Acrylics, plaster and spray paint on canvas // 2022

Parents of my ex // 195cm x 170cm // Plaster, acrylics and spraypaint // 2022

Room from all perspectives // 320 x 195 cm // Acrylics, ink and airbrush on canvas // 2024

'Laundry wrack' // 190 x 150 cm // Acrylics, ink and airbrush on canvas // 2023

Thanks that you invited me for Christmas dinner // 165cm x 145cm // plaster, acrylic and spray paint // 2022

︎ For more paintings check my instagram