Nicolas Rubinstein (1964–2025) was a French sculptor and visual artist whose work explored the links between nature, structure, memory, and mythology. Based in Marseille, he began developing his unique body of work in 1997, combining sculpture, natural sciences, geology, taxidermy, cartography, and conceptual art. He died in Marseille in August 2025, following a battle with lung cancer.
Among his most striking series, Mickey is Also a Rat occupies a unique place. By subverting the global icon of the cultural industry, Rubinstein reveals its symbolic shifts: Mickey, a jovial and immaculate figure, rediscovers his animal double, the rat, bearer of ambivalence, fears, and collective fantasies. From wordplay (in French, English, and Hebrew) to the confusion between mascot and pest, the series questions the fabrication of contemporary myths, their illusions, and their vanities. These sculptures play on irony, the grotesque, and the sacred, transforming a harmless icon into an allegory of the impulses, power, and ambiguities of a world saturated with images. The series is one of the most accomplished examples of his ability to combine humor, criticism, and anthropological depth.
