Cosmic Generator (Lettuce Variant)

Cosmic Generator presents a network of characters working in nonsensical, and at times absurd, economies. Artist Mika Rottenberg uses footage from actual discount dollar stores in Calexico, CA; Mexicali, Mexico; and Yiwu, China to recreate the imaginary “life” of a product, from its production in the factory to the moment it is sold. The segments are regularly interrupted by depictions of surreal tunnels, which represent the structures that Chinese residents of Mexicali supposedly dug under their homes and shops to travel surreptitiously to Calexico.

Mika Rottenberg creates these elaborate visual narratives to explore the seduction and magic, but also desperation, of our hypercapitalist, globally connected reality, exposing and probing labor, globalization, the production of value, and how our relationships to the world, and to one another, are increasingly monetized.