26 September 2019

Mika Rottenberg approaches serious topics with humour; exhibition 'Easypieces' shown at New Museum New York, traveling now to MCA Chicago

The exhibition 'Mika Rottenberg: Easypieces' (on view at MCA Chicago from 2 October 2019 until 8 March 2020) presents installations and videos by the Argentinian, in Israel raised, in New York based artist who links fiction and facts in a dream-like manner together.

Like free associations, her latest video installation 'Spaghetti Blockchain' consists of pictures which appear randomly arranged. The video installation - an exploration of materialism and a centerpiece of the exhibition, is described at the MCA Chicago press release as follows: "Like a blockchain - a series of records managed across many computers - the stories Rottenberg presents continuously feed into one another."

fig.: Mika Rottenberg, Spaghetti Blockchain, 2019. © Mika Rottenberg Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

Mika Rottenberg explores topics like capitalism, consumption, production or women's labor such as at the video 'NoNoseKnows' investigating the making of culture pearls by infecting oysters. "The process is turned into a bizarre assembly line: a woman sniffs small bouquets, provoking an allergic reaction that causes her to sneeze out plates of noodles."

fig.: Mika Rottenberg, NoNoseKnows (still), 2015. Video with sound and sculptural installation, 22 min, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

'Mika Rottenberg: Easypieces' is curated by Margot Norton, curator at the New Museum where it was exhibited from 26 June until 15 September. At MCA Chicago, it will be shown from 2 October 2019 until 8 March 2020.

At the video below, Mika Rottenberg speaks about her work 'Cosmic Generator' - also on view at MCA Chicago. 'Cosmic Generator' was filmed in a Chinese restaurant at the border to Mexico in Califonia and at a wholesale market in Yiwu, China.