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3/12/2004

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

A Retrospective (tomorrow is another fine day).

Rirkrit Tiravanija (born in 1961, living and working in New York, Berlin and Thailand) is the most important representative of an art form that leans the most closely towards reality. This Thai artist invites the visitor to take part in his work. For instance, he realizes platforms for discussions, areas for participation and creates situations that incite communication.

Tiravanija will realize a large project especially for the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, and in addition he will reactivate a number of his older installations. With this exhibition the museum wants to reinforce the current art discourse, also within a ‘traditional’ art museum. Tiravanija is known to be an extremely hospitable artist, who very regularly cooks meals for the visitors at his exhibition. In the presentation for the Boijmans it becomes clear that this aspect of his art forms part of a larger artistic concept.

How to make a retrospective exhibition of the work of Rirkrit Tiravanija? How to reconstitute works that were time based? How to re-stage performative events? How to include the collaborative nature of the work in an exhibition? These and more questions were discussed by a group of international curators during two symposia earlier this year at Kunstverein Munich. Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Laurence Bosse (now joined by Anne Dressen) from ARC, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Rein Wolfs from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Rochelle Steiner from the Serpentine Gallery, London; Philippe Vergne from the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Maria Lind from the Kunstverein Munich discussed these topics in depth, together with the artist.

This symposium resulted in new ways of thinking about Tiravanija's work and forms the basis of a series of upcoming "retrospective" exhibitions in 2004-05 at major international venues. For the exhibitions A Retrospective (tomorrow is another fine day), at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam and ARC Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris at the Couvent des Cordeliers, some of Tiravanija's most important installations - including Untitled (tomorrow is another day) at Kolnischer Kunstverein, 1996; Untitled (he promised) at the Vienna Secession, 2002; and Untitled (free) at 303 Gallery, 1992 - will not be shown per se. The spaces of the museums and galleries where these major works were first sited will be reconstructed in Rotterdam, while in Paris the ARC/Musee d'Art Moderne's architecture will be transplanted to the Couvent des Cordeliers.

The pieces themselves will be evoked through texts based on various memories of the artist's work written by the artist, as well as by American science fiction author Bruce Sterling and the French artist Philippe Parreno. A series of hourly guided tours, audio guides, actors performing regularly and words broadcast continuously in the exhibition space will give the public insights into pieces they may not have had an opportunity to experience.

Image: Untitled 2002 (he promised), 2002. Guggenheim Museum. Photos courtesy Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museumpark 18-20 3015 CX Rotterdam The Netherlands

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