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Still from 'Raw Footage', 2006
In his first exhibition in the UK since 2000, the Dutch artist Aernout Mik is showing four films which investigate the representation of war and patterns of human behaviour. Mik uses unseen footage from the conflict in former Yugoslavia in an attempt, as he puts it, 'to readdress the balance between the event and the non-event'.
In 'Raw Footage', Mik uses unseen footage from the conflict in former Yugoslavia. Mik acquired two large boxes of news footage from the war in Kosovo which ITN had never used on air which Mik spent weeks watching and editing. The resulting film tries to take up the opposite stance to the media's coverage of war - in Mik's film we are confronted by a relentless narrative of disaster, catastrophe and violence but instead witness the impact of the war on people's everyday lives. Mik subtlely shifts our perception of war away from it being about a series of big 'events' - the media's focus - to an awareness of the insidious intimacy of war, particularly in Kosovo where the war was a civil war. A coffee in a cafe, walking to meet a friend might be punctuated by moments of violence but in between those moments life went on. The war wasn't played out on a theatre of battle away from where people lived - it infiltrated their lives on every level. It is precisely this aspect of war that gets edited out by the media and which we don't normally see.
Mik's film questions the notion that there is such a thing as 'raw' footage, suggesting instead that all television coverage is manipulated in some way whether by the way it's cut, taken out of context or, more ethically dubious, if it's been staged (Mik talked recently of having witnessed cameramen in Kosovo setting up and re-taking shots as if they were working on a Jeff Wall-like staged simulation of war).
Still from 'Scapegoats', 2006
'Scapegoat', a clip of which you can see by clicking on Video Lounge in today's story list, documents a staged event in an abandoned stadium, orchestrated by Mik. The film explores the way people behave in the aftermath of disasters such as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. From the perspective of an anthropologist, Mik examines what happens to people who are suddenly invested with powers they would not normally have or who find themselves in situations which draws out of them certain characteristics which don't normally surface. In what resembles a piece of documentary film-making, the characters, who look distinctly like real people rather than actors, hang around, argue, sleep or do nothing. As the film progresses the roles in the film change from prisoner to guard and vice versa.
Mik's interest in anthropology and the social dynamics of groups of people extends to the gallery space - the film installations themselves become environments audiences can walk through and be enveloped by. Mik wants his films to be like 'incidents in space' where the viewer becomes part of the installation, another actor in a complicated series of relationships. The films are deliberately exhibited as 3-D objects with double-sided screens so that you can walk around them and interact not just with what you see on screen but with other visitors to the exhibtion as well.
Later this year, Aernout Mik will present a work in the Dutch Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. The Dutch contribution consists of three equal and interconnected facets: an expansion of Mik's work 'Training Ground'; a critical reader with texts by artists, philosophers, sociologists, and political scientists, co-edited by philosopher Rosi Braidotti, curator and writer Charles Esche, and Maria Hlavajova, curator of the Dutch Pavilion and artistic director, BAK; and a series of lectures and conversations. The third part is conceived of as an "extension" of the Pavilion and takes place at BAK in Utrecht, from September-November 2007.
On Sunday 11 March at 3pm Bruce Haines, Exhibitions Organiser at Camden Arts Centre, will be leading a tour of the Aernout Mik exhibition, with BSL interpretation. This event is free and open to all.
Aernout Mik: Shifting Shifting
Until 15 April
Camden Arts Centre
Arkwright Road
London NW3 6DG
T: +44 (0)207 472 5500
The exhibition will tour to the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (19 May to 15 July 2007); Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (September-October 2007) and Kunstverein Hannover (December 2007-February 2008).
An extensively illustrated book, featuring a specially commissioned essay by anthropologist Michael Taussig (Colombia University, New York) is published to accompany the exhibition.
Rebecca Wilson
Rebecca Wilson is the editor of Your Gallery magazine, and was formerly editor of ArtReview and deputy editor of Modern Painters. |
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Still from 'Scapegoats', 2006
Still from 'Raw Footage', 2006 |
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| Published on 02-03-2007 |
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