Maria Gertrudis "Mieke" Bal (born 14 March 1946)[1] is a Dutch cultural theorist, video artist, and Professor Emerita in Literary Theory at the University of Amsterdam.

She continued her postgraduate studies in Amsterdam under supervision of Professor Jan Kamerbeek, but due to the death of her supervisor in 1977 she was awarded her Ph.D. in French and Comparative Literature at Utrecht University.

[4] The Academy characterized Bal’s approach to literary theory and the visual arts as “highly innovative, robust, and displaying extraordinary creativity.”[5] Bal has supervised over eighty Ph.D. dissertations spanning a wide variety of topics, including the Ph.D. dissertation of new media scholar Lev Manovich at the University of Rochester in 1993.

Of What One Cannot Speak (2010) examines the work of Colombian sculptor Doris Salcedo, Thinking in Film (2013) looks at the video installations of Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila, and Endless Andness (2013) engages with the abstract spatial interventions of Belgian artist Ann Veronica Janssens.

Based on the book Mère Folle by French psychoanalyst Françoise Davoine, the film is a so-called ‘theoretical fiction’ that examines how madness can be treated analytically.

[21] Between 2004 and 2005, Mieke Bal collaborated with artist Shahram Entekhabi to produce a series of videos on migration: Glub, Road Movie, Lost in Space, eye contact.