News — Feb 11, 2011

On view in the solo exhibition Communitas
March 1–May 8, 2011, Jeu de Paume, Paris
première and press preview: February 28, 2011

The Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Jeu de Paume (Paris) and Museum Folkwang (Essen) have jointly commissioned Aernout Mik to create a new work titled Shifting Sitting. This video installation will be the centerpiece of a comprehensive survey of the artist’s work over the last thirteen years. Titled Communitas, the exhibition has been devised in close collaboration between the three international partners and the artist to open at Jeu de Paume at the end of February.

In Shifting Sitting, Mik continues to reflect on the various faces of democracy in Europe. The figure of Berlusconi and the collapse of the boundaries between politics, jurisdiction and the media are key elements of the work. Shifting Sitting was filmed in Rome’s EUR quarter (Esposizione Universale diRoma), which was built by order of Mussolini in the late 1930s.

Presented on three separate screens, the video installation focuses on different types of gatherings, in which it contrasts rigid with more fluid structures. The scenes are set in a court of law, where five men (businessmen or politicians, some of whom bear an uncanny resemblance to Berlusconi) are being questioned. The complete cast comprised some 120 actors and extras.

Aernout Mik (Groningen, 1962) is renowned for works that combine video, performance and architecture. Engaged with social and psychological relations, his work takes a penetrating look at contemporary society. The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam has supported Mik’s artistic output, beginning at the earliest stages of his career resulting in the eight works by Aernout Mik that are in the museum’s collection. An artist of international standing, Mik has held solo exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the world, including those in New York, London, Hannover and Chicago.

Mik made Shifting Sitting at the request of Jeu de Paume, the Museum Folkwang and the Stedelijk Museum, and with the support of the Netherlands Foundation for the Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, the Netherlands Film Fund, and the European Cultural Foundation. After its presentation in Paris, the survey exhibition will be on view in Museum Folkwang and the Stedelijk Museum. The title of the exhibition, Communitas, is taken from Mik’s penultimate work. The term “communitas” is borrowed from anthropologist Victor Turner and refers to a transitional phase that transcends ordinary social order, a moment when all members of the group are equal and temporarily united by a sense of togetherness and solidarity.

The retrospective is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue charting the work of Aernout Mik since 1999. It contains an interview with the artist; essays by Mariá Hlavajová, Christian Höller, Merijn Oudenampsen, Irit Rogoff and others; and texts by exhibition curators Leontine Coelewij (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), Sabine Maria Schmidt (Museum Folkwang, Essen) and Marta Gili (Jeu dePaume, Paris). The book is published by Steidl Verlag and designed by Mevis and Van Deursen.Note to editors: