Aernout Mik

Fiction and reality are mixed in Aernout Mik’s video works. We see the documentation of almost theatrical situations and, at the same time, (re-)constructed filmic tales of reality. The focus is always on collective processes, on the possibility and impossibility of existing as a community, on the game of power in a community, on its difficult democracy, and on the place of the individual within the community. Mik’s camera wants to be neutral, with a gesture of democratization of that which is filmed. This originates a polycentric world, a dynamic tableau that hosts many autonomous scenes, exactly like in the classic Flemish painting. The situations are typically evolving in a slow metamorphosis, where the social mechanisms play with the accidental – he himself speaks of a «choreography of the accidental». A constant tension inhabits the videos of the Dutch artist; we constantly feel the imminence of a happening. Through a fragmented narrative, Mik displays situations that are intrinsically open: this poetry of the indeterminacy allows the films to fill the space where they are installed. The interaction between the screen and the space constitutes the essential aspect of his artistic productions, involving the performative dimension on the screen and in the space itself. Therefore, the tension and the indeterminacy of the represented collective processes cannot help but strongly affect the spectator or visitor him/herself, and an existential sense of fragility will accompany his/her reflections.