LINES, LIVES AND LIES

July 13th - October 6th, 2024

LINES, LIVES AND LIES features the work of 6 alumni (duos) of Aernout Mik that have since established themselves within the professional art world, each securing a unique position in the art landscape.

Mikołaj Sobczak
Zauri Matikashvili
Jana Kerima Stolzer & Lex Rütten
Youn Hee Park
Nicola Gördes & Stella Rossié
Silke Schönfeld

LINES, LIVES AND LIES plays with the possibility of different storylines, histories, and narratives that can exist simultaneously and can be equally factual and fictional. Reality is intertwined with our sense of narrativity. We make sense of the world, of our history, by telling stories about it. We don’t speak of isolated events, but rather, we make connections, draw lines to establish causality and decide how events contribute to larger questions of identity. Lines, Lives and Lies is a rhythm of similar sounds, an echo of stories, where the lines between lives and lies become subtly blurred. In the form of video, in combination with installation, performance, and sculpture, the artists of this exhibition explore how we articulate our everyday lives through narrative. How do our stories produce the effects of our reality? Has the real already become too fictive to be fictionalized?

About Aernout Mik -  Aernout Mik is a Dutch artist, internationally known for his videos and installations. Mik represented the Netherlands in the Dutch Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale; participated in other international biennales in Sao Paulo, Berlin, Istanbul, Nagoya and Gwangju; and had solo exhibitions at venues such as the MoMa in New York; Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and Jeu de Paume in Paris. In his work, Mik plays with fictitious scenarios that bear a strong resemblance to political reality, lingering between documentation and performance. His video installations examine the expectations and behaviours of certain situations and invite the viewer to exercise their imagination. In addition to his artistic practice, Mik serves as a professor at the University of Fine Arts in Münster, Germany, and mentors residents at the Rijksacademy in Amsterdam.

Curated by Annemarie Galani (artists’selection) & Aernout Mik

Text: Caitlyn van de Kaap & Eva Yuki Mik

Acknowledgments: the Artists, Kunsthaus Nordrhein-westfalen Kornelimünster, Rijksakademie Amsterdam, Max Mayer Düsseldorf, Polana Institute Warsaw