The exhibition will make full use of the opening of the museum’s bold new building extension by Benthem Crouwel last September where the artist will design a dynamic environment for his video projections. A combination of new and older work the show builds on Mik’s background in sculpture and his later explorations in architecture, performance and social commentary.
The first major outing of the artist’s work since a show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, 2009, the show will feature 13 video installations created between 1999 and the present day. Drawing on current sociopolitical themes and their representations in the media, Mik features commentary on the economic recession, various global crises and racial tensions. One of the main films featured – Shifting Sitting (2011) was created especially for this exhibition, commenting on former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his entanglement in legal proceedings brought against him for alleged corruption.
The show’s titular work, Communitas (2010), was filmed at the Palace for Culture and Science in Warsaw and sees a group of individuals seeking to engage with each other as they grapple with ideas of power. Mik’s video work enables the viewer to interact with his works in experimental ways through its physical setting and projected scenes combining found footage and action he directs himself. This exhibition hopes to highlight the connections between Mik’s different styles of producing work by placing a large collection of his work side by side from a number of different periods highlighting forms of performance, theatre and documentary methods.
Aernout Mik: Communitas
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
4 May till 28 August 2013
Rakan Budeiri
