Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Mika Rottenberg, the first major presentation of her work on the west coast, in anticipation of the global release of ‘Remote’: her first feature-length film, made in collaboration with filmmaker Mahyad Tousi. Opening 23 June, the artist’s first Los Angeles exhibition will feature video works – ‘Spaghetti Blockchain’ (2019), ‘Cosmic Generator’ (2017), ‘NoNoseKnows’ (2015), and ‘Sneeze’ (2012) – in addition to new kinetic sculptures, drawings, and installations.
Rottenberg illustrates the absurdity of humanity’s rampant production, distribution, and consumption of objects by juxtaposing existing industry with her own, often unexpected, manufacturing systems. ‘I think of objects in terms of the processes behind them and the idea that humankind is captured in everything around us. I want to make these processes more visual. If art has any power, it is in making things visible.’ From pearl and food cultivation to the mass-production of wholesale plastic items sold in China, Rottenberg excavates the processes humans invent to create a sense of control.
Concurrent with the exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, ‘Remote’ will premiere this fall, and be shown at various international venues over the course of the coming year. Co-created by Rottenberg and Tousi during the Covid-19 pandemic, the film is set in a post-pandemic near future. Unoaku (Okwui Okpokwasili) and four other women living in different parts of the world—all of them fans of a popular South Korean dog-groomer-performer (Joony Kim)—discover a mysterious portal hidden in each of their homes with universe-altering consequences. ‘Remote’ will be presented in collaboration with Artangel, United Kingdom; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; Moderna Museet, Sweden; Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Canada; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, United States; and the Busan Biennial, South Korea.
Forthcoming and recent solo exhibitions include the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (21 May – 9 October 2022); the Louisiana Museum in Humlebæk, Denmark (2021); and ‘Easy Pieces,’ presented at the New Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto (2019–2020). Rottenberg was the recipient of the 2019 Kurt Schwitters Prize, which recognizes artists who have made a significant contribution to the field of contemporary art. In 2018, she was the winner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s James Dicke Contemporary Artist Prize, which recognizes an artist younger than 50 who has produced a significant body of work and consistently demonstrates exceptional creativity.
