Aernout Mik
Speaking in Tongues
with Lars Eidinger, Burghart Klaußner, and many others
November 15, 2013–January 12, 2014
Opening: November 14, 7pm
“Speculative Staging,” 8pm
Discussion with Aernout Mik (artist, Amsterdam), Martijn Oosterbaan (cultural anthropologist, Amsterdam), Stefan Heidenreich (author, Berlin). Moderated by Sabeth Buchmann (art historian, Vienna/Berlin)
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin
Germany
Dutch video artist Aernout Mik’s work Speaking in Tongues makes manifestations of new transnational religious movements experienceable. The multichannel installation places documentary video recordings of Pentecostal churches in Brazil and Nigeria within enactments of collective rituals of the business world.
Developed in the framework of the art and research project Global Prayers, Mik’s latest work Speaking in Tongues is being premiered at Haus der Kulturen der Welt. The renowned German actors Lars Eidinger (Everyone else by Maren Ade) and Burghart Klaußner (The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke), as well as over two hundred extras, and the building itself all play key roles.
Emergent religious movements around the world commonly promise redemption and liberation, as well as material prosperity. These movements follow the model of international companies. Aernout Mik’s large-scale video installation juxtaposes new kinds of religious communities with secular gatherings of the business world, which for their part have incorporated veiled religious rituals and features.
Documentary video footage of Pentecostal churches in Lagos, Belo Horizonte, and Rio de Janeiro is brought together with staged business meetings and improvised performances at Haus der Kulturen der Welt. What initially is clearly a business event mutates into an ambiguous form marked by the blending of secular and religious motifs and collective rituals, as well as the spread of the trancelike state of “speaking in tongues.” From diverse source material, a landscape of the transitions between the religious and the secular emerges.
Commissioned by and produced for Global Prayers. With the support of Mondriaan Fund, Hauptstadtkulturfonds (Capital Cultural Fund) Berlin, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, in cooperation with metroZones – Center for Urban Affairs.
Haus der Kulturen der Welt is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and by the Federal Foreign Office.
Press contact:
Anne Maier
anne.maier [at] hkw.de / T +49 (0) 39787 153
