RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA
BORN: 1961 (Buenos Aires, Argentina); currently based in New York NY & Bangkok WEBSITE: www.thelandfoundation.org
ABOUT: Tiravanija’s works combine traditional object making, public and private performances, teaching, and other forms of public service and social action. Interested in exploring the social role of the artist, he often produces installations in the form of stages or rooms for sharing meals or cooking. Some of his first projects of the 1990s involved cooking meals for gallery visitors. Currently a professor at Columbia University (NY), Tiravanija is also a founding member and curator of Utopia Station, a collective project of artists, art historians, and curators; and is president of The Land Foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
SELECTED PROJECTS:
Untitled 1992 (Free), held at the 303 Gallery, SoHo (1992) For this sculpture-performance-guerrilla action piece, Tiravanija transformed the office of the 303 Gallery into a makeshift kitchen. The installation included a refrigerator, hot plates, rice steamers, tables and stools. The artist cooked Thai curry, and gallery visitors were invited to visit the kitchen, serve themselves, and enjoy a hot meal for free. Art’s essential roles in sustenance, healing, and communion were thus emphasized through first hand experience.
The Land, a collaborative project, Chiang Mai, Thailand (1998; ongoing) The Land Project was initiated by Tiravanija as a self-sustaining environment emerging from the artistic community. Located in the northern part of Thailand, near the village of Sanpathong, it is intended to be cultivated as an open space or community free from ownership, and with elements favoring discussions and experimentation in the fields of culture. In the middle of the land are two working rice fields. Rice is grown and harvested yearly, and is shared by all the participants involved, and with families in the local village. On the social field of the land, artistic practices are discussed and tested. As a hybrid of innovation and traditionalism, contemporary materials and technologies contrast with ancient forms of agriculture on the land.
The land also supports architectural constructions utilized in a variety of ways, from shelters for sleeping to kitchens for cooking to platforms from which to deliver lectures or performances. Among those who have contributed to the land's structure so far are both local and international artists including Tiravanija, Kamin Letchaiprasert, Mitr Jai Inn, Tobias Rehberger, Philippe Parreno, Francois Roche, Angkrit Ajchariyasophon, Prachaya Phinthong, and SUPERFLEX. These small constructions vary from biioga collecting outhouses, later converted for cooking, to kitchens and a central hall with a generator powered by elephants' movements, to meditation huts designed and built as artistic and architectural experiments, while also functioning as spaces in which artists, students, and farmers may work. Anyone may build a new structure on the land, the only condition being that the addition remain accessible to all, as is the goal of the land generally.