The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell is presenting Aernout Mik: Reversal Room, a new video installation on view at the museum through March 14.
"Aernout Mik is an exciting and important artist," said Frank Robinson, the Richard J. Schwartz Director of the museum. "Visitors will find his complex installation an extraordinary experience -- mysterious, disturbing, humorous." The presentation of Reversal Room at the Johnson Museum is the work's premier in the United States.
Andrea Inselmann, the museum's curator of contemporary art, will discuss Reversal Room as part of the Johnson Museum's Art for Lunch series today, Feb. 19, at noon. The event is free and open to the public.
Completed in 2001, Reversal Room is Mik's most complex video installation to date. It is installed within a circular construction juxtaposing two scenes: one in a restaurant and the other in a kitchen. Each scene was recorded simultaneously on five cameras, using untrained actors and constructed sets. Featuring five floor-to-shoulder video projections, Reversal Room completely surrounds viewers with slowly rotating, synchronized tableaux, creating the impression that viewers are situated in the middle of the events.
Born in Groningen, the Netherlands, in 1962, Mik lives and works in Amsterdam. Since 1987, he has been presented in solo exhibitions throughout Europe. In 1997 he represented the Netherlands in the Venice Biennale, and in 2003 his work was included in the Istanbul Biennial in Turkey. Caixa Forum in Barcelona presented 10 of his video installations last summer. Mik's work has also received several prizes in Europe, including the prestigious Heineken Prize in 2002 in the Netherlands.
This exhibition is funded in part by the contribution of the Mondrian Foundation, Amsterdam. This grant is made available from the Netherlands Culture Fund of the Dutch Ministries for Foreign Affairs and Education, Culture and Science.
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