Citizens and Subjects

In 2007 Aernout Mik represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale. Rather than produce a standard catalogue to accompany Mik's acclaimed three-part video installation, curator Maria Hlavajova organized this dense and galvanizing critical reader. Interspersed with provocative black-and-white images from Mik's artworks, Citizens and Subjects looks at the Netherlands as an example of the contemporary Western condition at a time when the demands of "national security," the normalization of violence and the maintenance of high levels of fear and anxiety have become part of daily life in the so-called West. This volume seeks to identify the causes of our current predicament and looks at how our society fails to negotiate the challenges posed by economic globalization, human migration and cross-cultural influence. With contributions by philosophers, social scientists and artists including Marlene Dumas, Aernout Mik, Willem de Rooij and Lawrence Weiner.