Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija (b. 1961, Bueno Aires, Argentina, based in New York, United States; Berlin, Germany; and Chiang Mai, Thailand) creates work that routinely rejects the primacy of the art object and redefines the exhibition space as a stage for social interaction and communal care. Frequently associated with relational aesthetics, a movement that bases art in human relations and social contexts, Tiravanija has been a pivotal figure in the evolution of contemporary art since the 1990s.

In addition to participatory installations that gather people to share in ordinary rituals such as cooking, eating and reading, Tiravanija also works through other modes such as painting, printmaking, assemblage, video, performance and teaching. Underlying his work is a strong desire to dissolve the barriers between art and the everyday. In an ongoing series beginning with pad thai (1990) in New York, Tiravanija prepares and serves Thai dishes to exhibition visitors—a simple yet radical act that confronts preconceived notions of art spaces and spotlights cultural identity. Since the mid-2000s, the artist has also engaged with broader social and political themes, such as through collaborative efforts to create images of mass protests and movements against oppressive powers in Demonstration Drawings (2006–ongoing).

Tiravanija obtained his BFA from the Ontario College of Art, Toronto in 1984, his MFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago in 1986, and underwent the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1985–1986). His work is found in leading collections including the Baltimore Museum of Art; Bundeskunstsammlung, Berlin; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Fond National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Bangkok; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate, London; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

Notable recent solo exhibitions include DAS GLÜCK IST NICHT IMMER LUSTIG (HAPPINESS IS NOT ALWAYS FUN) (2024), Gropius Bau, Berlin; A LOT OF PEOPLE (2023), Museum of Modern Art, New York; Rirkrit Tiravanija (2023), Haus der Kunst, Munich; la paura mangia l’anima (2020), Fondazione Converso, Milan; untitled 2019 (the form of the flower is unknown to the seed) (2019), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; and Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Green (2019), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including more recently Flowing Moon, Embracing Land (2022), 3rd Jeju Biennale, Jeju Island; DO WE DREAM UNDER THE SAME SKY (2017), 1st ARoS Triennial, Aarhus; CURRENT:LA Water (2016), 1st Public Art Biennial, Los Angeles; and All the World’s Futures (2015), 56th Venice Biennale.

Tiravanija has had a long relationship with STPI, resulting in multiple residences in 2012, 2015, 2020 and 2022. His 2012 residency culminated in the exhibition Time Travelers Chronicle (Doubt): 2014 – 802,701 A.D. (2014), while his 2015 residency led to the group exhibition Exquisite Trust (Blindly Collective Collaborations) (2017) with artists Carston Höller, Tobias Rehberger and Anri Sala. His 2020 and 2022 residencies resulted in the exhibition We Don’t Recognise What We Don’t See (2023), curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist.