Aernout Mik, born 1962 in Groningen, Netherlands, lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin. In 2007, he represented the Netherlands in the Dutch Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. Solo exhibitions in, among others: Art Sonje Center, Seoul; MoMA New York; BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Jeu de Paume, Paris; Museum Folkwang, Essen; CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid. Aernout Mik has participated in numerous international biennials, such as the Venice Biennial, Sao Paulo Biennial, Tirana Biennial, Art Focus – Israel Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, Berlin Biennial, Gwangju Biennial and Kochi-Muziris Biennial.

Mik’s film installations are often about social order and chaos, making it difficult for the viewer to distinguish between fiction and documentary. In his work, he creates a sense of disorientation through a choreography of gestures, which is reinforced by the huge screens surrounding the viewer. The spatial arrangement of the projection alone changes the way of viewing.

Previous video works by Aernout Mik focussed on bankers, religious preachers, truck drivers, refugees or earthquake victims. Yet, as curator Ralf Rugoff notes, “none of these figures are created as an independent personality or psychological subject”. Mik’s camera looks at them all with the same neutral gaze; peculiarities and differences become smaller and blurred. “We can only be guided by the collective identity of those who, in other circumstances, would probably have had a character of their own.”

The class explores video and video installation, performance and sculpture, but does not exclude other techniques. Sculpture is to be understood here as art that works with space in a broad and speculative sense – in private or public space, social or political space, media space, exhibition space. The class is a place for equal exchange, joint projects and collaborations.