The Maison de l'Amérique latine lends its ground-floor exhibition space to the Argentine artist Miguel Rothschild who will produce a new, previously unseen, work. Established in Berlin since the beginning of the 90s, Miguel Rothschild’s entire body of work blends installation, sculpture, glass, organic materials and photography. Though performance played an important part of his earliest creations, with time, he distanced himself from it to tackle other media such as photography, without shrinking from burning or puncturing it.

The whole of Miguel Rothschild's exhibit at the Maison de l'Amérique latine pertains to the central theme of his work: the specter. In this respect, the public will behold his installation "Groß und Kleingeist", composed of two photographic prints.

These depict the evolution of an ever-growing cloud of smoke, produced by a forest fire that devours nature into nothingness, from one photograph to the other, obscuring it until nothing is visible. The sizes of the photographs shown vary according to the evolution of the cloud of smoke. As a result, Miguel Rothschild creates a subtle variation of that which is destroyed and that which destroys. His goal is not to evoke a nature undisturbed and flourishing. On the contrary, his interest lies in that chance moment in which something takes place that could alter or destroy everything. At the same time, he repeats that which the photographs illustrate: he punctures holes in areas of the photographs where landscape would appear, thus expressing a perceptible reality of the forest fire. In this way, he allows the spectator to participate and feel the coming danger.

Here, he blends a mixed feeling of menace and mystery. By burning the paper, the artist also abandons the traditional connection with two-dimensionality. Riddled with punctures, the paper seems to extend beyond its edges, endless, and offers yet another perception, towards an opening, an uncertainty.

Echoing this ensemble, Miguel Rothschild displays a rising white panache of smoke in a glass case, specifically conceived for the Maison de l'Amérique latine: a metaphor for the spirit of the forest. Creeping over the transparent surface looking for a way to break through and seize it, as if searching for a possible escape. Despite his attempts, the spirit remains trapped between the panes of glass. In the manner of a moving picture, it works both as a spatial and tactile extension of the photography installation. Intersecting several techniques and means, Miguel Rothschild evokes the spirit of the forests in its spiritual and poetic dimension, in the same way of the shamanic beliefs where each component of nature has a soul.

Miguel Rothschild was born in 1963 in Buenos Aires and lives in Berlin. He began his studies at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires and completed his studies with A Master's degree from the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. His work comprises several media including photography, sculpture as well as installation. Rothschild is represented by the Paris gallery Bendana-Pinel, where he has exhibited several times. He has also had one-man shows at the Galerie Kuckei (Buenos Aires and Berlin).

The works of Miguel Rothschild are to be found in several institutions such as the Berlinische Galerie, the State Museum of Berlin, the Malba Museo de Arte Latinoamericano in Buenos Aires and at the Fondation Carmignac in Porquerolles, France.