Mika Rottenberg's First French Institutional Show at La Maison Rouge

Mika Rottenberg's first solo exhibition in a French institution, held at La Maison Rouge in Paris from February 18 to April 11, 2009, featured four video installations exploring labor, body constraints, and consumer society. The works, including 'Dough' (2005-2006), 'Tropical Breeze' (2004), and 'Cheese' (2008-09), use Freudian sublimation to critique Fordist efficiency and bodily alienation. Actresses with fetishized bodies (gigantism, elephantiasis, bodybuilding, excessive hair) perform repetitive tasks, with production tools that undermine profitability. In 'Dough', allergic tears accelerate dough fermentation; in 'Tropical Breeze', sweat is used to make refreshing wipes. 'Cheese' features an anti-baldness elixir made from Niagara Falls water that has flowed through long hair. The exhibition also included photographs at Galerie Laurent Godin. Rottenberg's aesthetic merges sensual dreaminess with advertising for organic products, creating a critique of consumer society.