Squish, Twist, Fizz

Mika Rottenberg for Kids

NGV International

Ground Level

13 Dec 26 – 11 Apr 27, free entry

As part of the 2026 NGV Triennial, a new children’s exhibition by artist Mika Rottenberg will take kids on a surreal journey. At the heart of the exhibition is Cosmic Generator, 2017, a video work by Rottenberg that travels through brightly lit underground tunnels, where viewers happen upon people dressed as tacos and in business suits, women working in market stalls filled with sparkly decorations and plastic goods, and rickety food carts ambling along the border between Mexico and the United States. By linking seemingly unrelated places and materials together, Rottenberg is suggesting that everything in our world may be more connected than it appears.

Extending beyond the screen, Squish, Twist, Fizz invites children into a hands-on environment inspired by the film’s textures, colours and movement. Highlighting Rottenberg’s interest in sensory experiences and tactile materials and processes, young participants can take part in drawing activities, play with light and sound, and make sculptures using twistable stems and forms made from plastic waste collected from the streets of New York City.

About the Artist

Mika Rottenberg’s rigorous practice combines video, sculpture and architectural installation. Her work blurs the line between fiction and reality to highlight the absurdity of the contemporary, hyper-capitalist world and its social and ecological implications. Born in Argentina and now living in New York, Rottenberg gained a BFA from New York’s School of Visual Arts in 2000 and an MFA from Columbia University in 2004.

She has held solo exhibitions at the New Museum, New York, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (US); the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto (Canada); Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna (Italy); and the Museum Tinguely, Basel (Switzerland). Her work is in the permanent collections of MoMA, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (US); Louisiana Museum (Denmark); Tate, London (UK) and the Julia Stoschek Foundation (Germany).

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Triennial

NGV Triennial 2026 is a dynamic and multilayered exhibition experience. Spanning all four levels of NGV International and weaving across the NGV’s expansive galleries, this blockbuster exhibition offers an unparalleled journey through contemporary creative expression, cementing Melbourne’s place as a vital backdrop for international artistic discourse.

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