Studio Banana TV interviews Thai visual artist Rirkrit Tiravanija who has transformed the constant movement and cultural interaction of his own life into an engaged conceptual art practice.
Interview realised with the sponsorship of the Universidad Europea de Madrid
Born in Buenos Aires in 1961, of Thai origin, he was raised in Thailand, Ethiopia and Canada, and educated in Chicago and New York. He now lives between Berlin, Thailand and New York. His work is difficult to categorise and in some ways the term ‘visual artist’ does not accurately represent him. As he says, ‘it is not what you see that is important but what takes place between people’. Tiravanija’s works tend to set the stage, to offer an opportunity or a possibility for interaction and participation. The talent he has for interaction while travelling between different cultures and customs has been transformed into an engaged, and engaging, art practice. He integrates the flux of his itinerant life into sedate museum and gallery spaces, effectively destroying the division between art and life.
Tiravanija’s work has been presented widely at museums and galleries throughout the world including solo exhibitions at Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2005); Serpentine Gallery, London (2005); Secession, Vienna (2002); and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1997). He has participated in such notable group exhibitions as the Sharjah Biennial 8, United Arab Emirates (2007); 27th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2006); Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night, New York (2005), and the 50th Venice Biennale (2003).
He was the co-curator of the Station Utopia project at the Venice Biennale 2003 together with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Molly Nesbit. He is also a co-founder of The Land Foundation , a collaborative project in Chang Mai, Thailand, which combines contemporary art interventions and agricultural traditional values.
The interview took place at the art gallery Salvador Díaz in Madrid during the exhibition “The house the cat built” in which a reproduction of Tiravanija’s home in Chang Mai hosted art pieces of other contemporary artists such as Pierre Huyghe, Tobias Rehberger, Jakob Kolding, Gabriel Kuri, Liam Gillick or Jorge Pardo. Interview by Studio Banana TV. Translation by Andy Marlow.
Special thanks to Universidad Europea de Madrid and Pía Ogea from Gallería Salvador Díaz.
Interview by Studio Banana TV. Translation by Andy Marlow.
[...] Rirkrit Tiravanija in interview [via Studio Banana TV] [...]