KUB 2018.02 | Press Release Mika Rottenberg 21 | 04 – 01 | 07 | 2018

Press Conference To be announced

Opening Reception Friday, April 20, 2018, 7 pm

Press photos for download www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at

Seite 1 | 5

The artist Mika Rottenberg, who was born in and grew up in , is concerned with cycles of production and the manner in which commodities are transported. Her work is neither disinterested critique nor precise political documentation, rather undertakes an analysis of the present in a distorted, caricaturial exaggeration. In confining claustrophobic spaces, frequently fabricated from cardboard and found objects, the core of Rottenberg’s installations is usually a video showing specific production processes, such as the extracting of pearls from mussel shells. Rottenberg highlights the premises of labor, whilst simultaneously forcing the viewer into the role of a voyeur who is coerced into narrow corridors in order to view the processes of work. In her small spaces, objects tower in surreal scenographies, revealing the absurd accumulations and senselessness of some global enterprises.

The majority of the protagonists in her films are women who, according to Rottenberg, “loan” the artist their body parts. In the film Dough (2006), there are four women, two of them, the corpulent Raqui and the slender Kat, fashion lumps of dough in a factory-like environment.

For her highly acclaimed work Cosmic Generator for Skulptur Projekte 2017 in Münster, Rottenberg again worked with provisional architecture. She employed a disused Asian store as a readymade set-up. In the video filmed in a small border town between the USA and , she depicts the lives of Asian immigrants who maintain – literally between frontiers –a continual production process. Capitalism does not acknowledge borders.

Many of her installations are comical or incorporate erotic elements. For her exhibition at , she is planning, among other things, to set up the multi-layered processes of cheese production.

Seite 2 | 5

Biography Mika Rottenberg

Mika Rottenberg was born in in 1976. She lives and works in New York.

Mika Rottenberg’s film installations explore the seduction, magic, and desperation of our hyper-capitalistic, globally connected reality. The artist weaves documentary elements with fiction to create complex allegories for the living conditions experienced within our global systems. Several solo shows have been dedicated to the artist’s work in recent years: Magasin III, Stockholm (2013), Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2014), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2016). She will be presenting a new solo exhibition at the Bass Museum, Miami (Dec 2017–April 2018). Rottenberg’s work was also showcased at the 2008. She collaborated in 2011 with artist on Seven, a cycle of performances and installations created for Performa 11 in . In 2015, her work NoNoseKnows was featured in the as part of All the World's Futures. Rottenberg’s most recent film Cosmic Generator was part of Skulptur Projekte 2017 in Münster.

Seite 3 | 5

Partners and Sponsors Kunsthaus Bregenz would like to thank its partners for their generous financial support and the cultural commitment that accompanies it.

Seite 4 | 5

Director Thomas D. Trummer

Chief Executive Werner Döring

Curator Rudolf Sagmeister

Marketing | Cooperation Birgit Albers | ext. -413 [email protected]

Development | Sponsoring Lisa Hann | ext. -437 [email protected]

Press | Online Media Martina Feurstein | ext. -410 [email protected]

Art Education Mareile Halbritter ext. -417 [email protected] Barbara Straub ext. -415 [email protected]

Publications | Artist’s Editions Katrin Wiethege | ext. -411 [email protected]

Edition Sales Caroline Schneider-Dürr | ext. -444 [email protected]

Opening Hours Tuesday to Sunday 10 am – 6 pm Thursday 10 am – 8 pm Ticket Counter | ext. -433

Seite 5 | 5