After his overview exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 2013, Dutch artist Aernout Mik (1962) presented new work at BAK in Utrecht. Through a new multifaceted series of projects titled Future Vocabularies BAK inaugurated this series with Mik’s exhibition. The work presented by Mik is the video and spatial installation Cardboard Walls (2013) which confronts us with the immediate aftermath of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, of 2011. It shows various situations (both real and imaginary) that were caused by this catastrophe. They are enacted by evacuees from the region who are now destined to a life in makeshift, fragile cardboard compartments. The video was surrounded by a spatial installation of real cardboard walls in order to literally incorporate the viewer in the problemacy of the disaster in question.

Aernout Mik became widely known for his video installations. He tries to outline the psychosocial state of today’s society. He refers, with his staged videos, to current political and social issues, such as economic depression, global crises, racial tensions, and the way these issues are addressed in the media.

After his Raw Footage/Scapegoats in 2006, Cardboard Walls was the second exhibition of Mik at BAK.

Aernout Mik – Cardboard Walls

BAK Utrecht

2 March – 18 May 2014