Aernout Mik

Double Bind / Threshold Barriers
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt

Control and Security

Aernout Mik’s (b. Groningen, 1962; lives and works in Amsterdam) environments and video installations create haunting situations that shed light on the behavior of groups in often unstable social contexts. The Dutch artist’s choreographed videos touch on structures of social psychology, staging spaces that reflect the individual’s position amid contradictory or dysfunctional systems. Blending the documentary and performative registers, Mik’s fictional scenarios are inspired by imagery and narratives related to recent events such as antiterror measures in major European cities as well as international protests and police violence against demonstrators that have become lodged in the collective consciousness thanks to their media dissemination.

At SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE, Aernout Mik presents his video installation Double Bind (2018) and Threshold Barriers (2022), a piece conceived specifically for the exhibition. Both works probe the suggestions and dynamics of security and threats, power and powerlessness in the public space. The catalogue accompanying the exhibition includes a foreword by Sebastian Baden, a contribution by Daniel Loick and an interview with the artist by Katharina Dohm.