Tropical Breeze
The colourful films from Mika Rottenberg (°1976, Buenos Aires, Argentinia) present women with unique physical traits as absurdist characters. Their body is employed as a manufacturing machine. This dehumanizes them; they function as little more than moving parts of a larger mechanism. In this way Mika Rottenberg points to capitalist mass production that limits the role of the individual laborer to the point of absurdism. Contrary to the heavy subject material, Rottenberg’s movies are actually quite humorous and joyful.
In ‘Tropical Breeze’ we see bodybuilding champion Heather Foster driving a tuned-up van. Her skin glistens with sweat. In the booth of the car sits Felicia Ballos, professional dancer in real life, semi-contortionist here. With her toes she picks up one tissue at a time and connects it to a pulley-operated clothes line with a piece of gum. The tissue arrives to the driver who uses it to wipe her sweat before she sends it back with the clothes line. The tissue gets neatly folded and stacked away in a box. The sweat gives the tissues a particular scent – lemon. “Tropical Breeze Lemon Scented Moist Tissues.”
