Aernout Mik represents the Netherlands at the 52nd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2007

The Dutch contribution at the Venice Biennale in 2007 is a project consisting of three equal and interconnected facets focusing on issues of ‘security’, violence, anxiety and (illegal) immigration: a new work by artist Aernout Mik in the Dutch Pavilion; a critical reader with texts by artists, philosophers, sociologists and political scientists, co-edited by philosopher Rosi Braidotti, curator and writer Charles Esche and Maria Hlavajova; and a series of lectures and conversations. This third part is conceived as an ‘extension’ of the Pavilion and takes place in Utrecht (BAK and Utrecht University), Eindhoven (Van Abbemuseum) and Rotterdam (Witte de With) from September to November 2007.
The Venice Biennale takes place from 10 June to 21 November 2007.

As Maria Hlavajova, artistic director of BAK and curator of the Dutch Pavilion writes in her proposal: ‘The project for the Dutch Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale addresses how ‘security’ – along with the anxiety and fear it paradoxically both stems from and produces in return – has become constitutive of the world today. The project explores the mechanisms of power and violence inherent in the ongoing and open confrontation between the privileged and disadvantaged, which since the dawn of social democracy have been most apparently evidenced in attitudes towards immigrants and refugees. The project reveals how these abstract principles connect to the current political reality in the West on one hand, and on the other, to largely unresolved historical issues such as the colonial past. With this project for the Dutch Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, we believe we have the possibility to address one of the most urgent issues of our time, which critically influences the lives of people regardless of their ideological, social, national or religious backgrounds. Contemporary art here is understood as a site where larger networks of cultural, political and social discourse intersect, thus creating new possibilities; a site where ideals that could potentially counterbalance repressive developments in the public sphere can be reimagined.’