Exhibitions
Mika Rottenberg: vibrant matter
An exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Menorca that explores the contradictions of the capitalist system and the human relationship with matter and globalization.
The art of Mika Rottenberg (Buenos Aires, 1976) constantly plays with the line that separates the real and the invented, highlighting the contradictions of our system of production and consumption. This Argentine artist based in New York arrives in the State for the first time with an exhibition that can be seen at Hauser & Wirth Menorca until the autumn, where she presents a selection that reviews her recent career with a combination of video, installation and sculpture.
Rottenberg constructs strange worlds that make us think about globalization and the way human labor relates to machinery and mass production. In Cosmic Generator, one of the most outstanding pieces, he transports us to a confusing universe that goes from a plastic market in China to the border between Mexico and California, all mixed with elements of magical realism. This mixture creates a visual collage that highlights the madness of industrial production and excessive consumption.
Cosmic Generator, Mika Rottenberg (2017). Hauser&Wirth
With Spaghetti Blockchain, Rottenberg explores another realm of contrasts. Images of ASMR shows, Tuvan throat singers, the CERN laboratory, and a potato harvester combine to examine how we manipulate matter and our relationship with the physical world. The title refers to blockchain technology, a system that operates without any centralized authority, and serves as a metaphor for the way Rottenberg weaves rapid and unexpected connections between diverse sources, without giving a clear conclusion. “I’m interested in these human-created systems where the starting point is to have no idea what’s really going on and try to impose a certain logic on things, and the madness that comes with that,” the artist explains.
Spaghetti Blockchain, Mika Rottenberg (2019). Hauser&Wirth
More recently, between 2024 and 2025, she developed the Lampshares series, lamp-sculptures created from recycled materials and invasive vines, working in collaboration with the Inner City Green Team in New York. These functional pieces reflect the same critical view of capitalist systems, proposing a creative alternative to mass production based on extraction and waste. In addition, these creations incorporate a certain irony and a poetic touch that is also present in her most recent drawings, where symbols that refer to the human body appear: limbs, organic forms and ideas of circularity that connect with the debate on sustainability, concern for non-normative female bodies and the role of women's work in her audiovisual pieces.
Vista de l'exposició 'Mika Rottenberg. Vibrant Matter' a Hauser&Wirth Menorca.
Mika Rottenberg's work is a constant play of contrasts and reinventions that invites us to look with different eyes at the way we live and produce in today's world, where the distance between us is combined with global interconnection through the objects and systems that surround us.
Mm08, Mika Rottenberg (2024). Hauser&Wirth. © Damian Griffiths
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