Aernout Mik. Territorium (An exhibition held in the context of [PRO]SMOTR Festival of Video Art) (The Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum)

Video-installations created by the Dutch artist Aernout Mik are always related to architecture of show-rooms. He has demolished the idea of obligatory "dark room", which was a must at video-exhibitions, and whose aim was to concentrate viewers' attention on the screen. He includes his works into interiors of galleries and museums. Video-installation "Territorium" consists of two screens built into a special architectural construction. People on the screens seem to be doing something strange: they are moving in some ecstatic "dance", which endlessly repeats itself; and they are in some foam up to the waist. All the characters on both screens are as tall as ordinary people, so that a viewer standing between the two projections automatically feels as a participant of the action. Practically all Mik's works are silent. Absence of sound lets the author, as he puts it, easier insert video-images into any environment. Besides, silence helps viewers concentrate on details of a picture, makes it more significant. Silent video-projections, showing strange mechanical behaviour of a human crowd, have hypnotic effect.