Aernout Mik. Still from Kitchen

The kitchen could come from the latest IKEA catalogue. The cupboards are a modern blue grey colour. On the kitchen bench a breakfast tray is laid. The coffee percolator on the left looks like it has been recently used. The scale of the kitchen, which appears so big, signifies a public room. In the kitchen, a couple of elderly men move slowly. Maybe it is an old people's home? Suddenly they are unpleasant to each other. From the right comes a third man of similar age. First he tries to separate the combatants. But a scuffle breaks out, unlike anything else seen before, and the three old men with their bent backs, stiff movements and plodding steps tussle about in a crazy fight. The whole thing is completely absurd. It is difficult to determine whether a tragedy or a comedy is taking place in Aernout Mik's video projection 'Kitchen'. Perhaps it is just tragi-comical.

Aernout Mik is born 1962 in Holland, where he lives and works. In 1997 he represented Holland at the Venice Biannual together with Willem Oorbeek. Many thanks for the support from "Mondran Foundation Amsterdam, for the advancement of the visual arts, design and museums".

We are also showing the film 'Fluff' (1996) by Aernout Mik. 'Kitchen' is made 1997.

Karina Ericsson Wärn