who actually protects the police?

It is a bizarre sight: on hands and knees seven policemen crawl on the ground. In their dark blue uniform, body armor and knee protection, they look like members of a counter-terrorist unit. A few of them carry a Kalashnikov on their backs. They huddle behind each other in a neat row, as if they wanted to stay out of sight and shot of a dangerous suspect. The funny thing is: the place of action is a neat residential area where nothing seems to be in the air. There is no suspect, no threat, just the seemingly aimless behavior of the police.

‘People often say that my work is so absurd, but in fact everyday life itself is absurd’, says artist Aernout Mik (60). ‘Why, for example, do we take it for granted to obey someone in uniform?’ We are in his new exhibition Double Bind / Threshold Barriers in the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, looking at the images of the creeping cops on a large video screen. Two video installations by the Dutch artist can be seen on the top floor of the Kunsthal, a 140-metre-long building from 1986 that is regarded as one of the most important art venues in Europe. One is new and was made especially for the exhibition.

The fact that there is a new exhibition by Mik, within train distance of the Netherlands, is special. In 2012, the artist showed his work for the last time in his home country, then as a large overview in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. By that time, Mik had already completed just about all the highlights of an art career: twice represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale (in 1997 and 2007), and in 2009 a solo exhibition at the MoMa in New York, the most important contemporary art museum. in the world. The artist, who lives in Amsterdam and teaches at the art academy in Munster, Germany, has mainly exhibited in Asia in recent years, including Japan and Korea.

Mik is known for paying a lot of attention to the spatial design of his installations and this can also be seen in Schirn. The two videos are shown on large screens facing each other in the room, with a large gray bench in the middle, reminiscent of a roadblock.

The police play an important role in both works. In Double Bind agents perform absurd actions in a city, while they are largely ignored by passers-by. The new, specially made for this exhibition Threshold Barriers depicts a confrontation between police and a group of protesters. In a huge maze made of crush barriers and tarpaulins, the two groups perform a kind of dance. Sometimes it seems like a power struggle, sometimes a game. Both videos beg the question: who actually protects the police?

It is a question that has gained in urgency since Black Lives Matter and the international discussion about police brutality. The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 made it clear yet again that the police, especially in the US but also in other countries, do not represent a protection for large groups of people, but rather a threat. Some images from Double Bind seem directly inspired by Floyd’s murder. So you see a cop of color pressing his own head against the asphalt while he is gasping for air. ‘I Can’t Breathe‘, you think to yourself.

Yet they cannot be direct references, because Double Bind was made in 2018. Mik never refers to concrete events in his video installations. He does, however, collect photos from current events that eventually find their way into his work. ‘In this case I started with a different image’, says Mik, ‘namely the presence of groups of armed anti-terror agents that you often saw standing next to buildings after the terrorist attacks in Brussels, Antwerp and Paris. A kind of ghosts I call them; they were very ostentatious and at the same time everyone tried to ignore them as much as possible.’

These images of armed agents in the city have now largely disappeared from the collective consciousness, the artist knows. “That’s how fast it goes.” Not that that really matters, because Mik’s video installations have the special quality that they feel current and timeless at the same time. Mik sketches worlds that we know all too well from newsreel images and newspaper photos. In those worlds there are actors who often behave like soldiers or agents. What exactly is going on, and where exactly the scene takes place, is never entirely clear. There is more of a vague feeling that matches the zeitgeist. For example: the paradox of armed police that should evoke a sense of protection, but which radiate unrest and danger.

Threshold Barriers the second video was made especially for this exhibition in April of this year. This new work of art began with an image we know all too well from the past few years: the confrontation between police and a group of protesters. Whether it concerns the demonstrations against corona measures, Black Lives Matter, or the demonstrations in Hong Kong: you can see it all in it. At the same time, the world is in Threshold Barriers completely on its own. Sometimes the protesters gain the upper hand and manage to disarm the police, who are then left confused and powerless. Then suddenly follows a flashback to a cop who brutally attacks a protester, while there are also moments when it seems that protesters and police are working together.

‘I am interested in those moments when two extremes suddenly merge’, says Mik. “Where does control from one group spill over to another?” Whether his work is political depends on what you mean by that, he thinks. ‘I especially want to show that the way in which we organize society and who has power in it, is based on choices. From there you can ask questions. For example: can we imagine the police institute differently?’

Shooting days are an exercise in letting go of control for Mik. He prepares the videos very precisely in advance, with sketches and annotations of images that must in any case be included. There are no rehearsals. The actors come to the set with only a rough idea of ​​what to do, from there a lot is improvised. ‘I don’t know in advance what exactly is going to happen. It depends on the dynamics between the actors, such a group of people automatically becomes a kind of organism that takes on a life of its own.’

This unpredictability is one of the reasons that Mik has had trouble financing his video installations for years: ‘These are, of course, impossible projects. I always play at least two days, at Double Bind there were at least five. The scale is huge, there are always a lot of people working with it. And then it is often unclear what exactly should come out of it.’ The productions are realized with a mix of money from funds, own money and a contribution from a museum. Schirn Kunsthalle contributed to the new work. But it has become more difficult to get the money together, says Mik: ‘Ever since the credit crisis in 2008, it has been scraping every time.’

The pandemic brought a forced break and led to reflection: in the future he wants to work smaller. Less large groups of people together, more zooming in. In what form, remains to be seen. “There’s a plan for a feature film.” Despite the uncertainty, Mik sees the future positively, he concludes: ‘Until now I have always been able to make what I wanted to make.’

Aernout Mik: Double Bind / Threshold Barriers can be seen in Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt until 3 October.