Rirkrit Tiravanija at MoMA PS1

Artist: Rirkrit Tiravanija

Exhibition title: A LOT OF PEOPLE

Organized by: Ruba Katrib and Yasmil Raymond, with Jody Graf and Kari Rittenbach

Venue: MoMA PS1, New York, US

Date: October 12, 2023 – March 4, 2024

Photography: All images copyright and courtesy of the artist and MoMA PS1, New York

LONG ISLAND CITY, New York, October 10, 2023—MoMA PS1 presents the first US survey and largest exhibition to date dedicated to artist Rirkrit Tiravanija (Thai, b. 1961). On view from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024, Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE traces four decades of Tiravanija’s career and features over 100 works, from early experimentations with installation and film, to drawings, works on paper, ephemera, sculpture, and newly produced “plays” of key participatory works.

Critical to the evolution of recent art in New York City and worldwide, Tiravanija’s interdisciplinary work trades in myriad forms of cultural translation and mistranslation: using multiple languages, appropriating imagery, restaging his own work, and constructing architectural replicas. Often citing art history, cinema, and vernacular Thai culture while folding in aspects of his​ own biography, Tiravanija puts forth open-ended proposals to generate “another notion of culture”—one less reliant on Western understandings of aesthetics and authenticity. Surveying his practice as a sculptor, filmmaker, traveler, and mentor, A LOT OF PEOPLE provides an overview of the striking complexity of Tiravanija’s pluralistic and itinerant eforts to “bring people in” to encounter each other and “make less things, but more useful relationships.”

Titled A LOT OF PEOPLE, a frequent material line in many of Tiravanija’s interactive pieces, the exhibition features a number of works that blur the distinction between artwork and audience. From playing ping-pong in untitled 2021 (mañana es la cuestión) to recording music in untitled 1996 (rehearsal studio no. 6, open version) and drinking Turkish cofee in untitled 1993 (café deutschland), audiences become active participants in many of Tiravanija’s works, which are only realized through their involvement.

Unfolding across the second floor galleries, lobby, and Courtyard, the exhibition gathers rarely seen early works from the late 1980s and 1990s—including many original sculptures, installations, and editions, some of which have been subsequently reimagined, cast, and memorialized over the years in new materials from plaster to bronze. Tiravanija’s concern with the politics of the personal extends into works that tackle global politics as well as the quotidian news cycle. Examples from his Demonstration Series (2001–present)—drawings rendering photographs found in the International Herald Tribune—are presented alongside his evolving series of text pieces on newsprint, and appropriations of other artists, such as Philip Guston. To make many of these works, Tiravanija has set up a studio near his home in Chiang Mai, Thailand, creating an economy of art production that is explicitly localized and collaborative.

Central to the exhibition is a newly conceived presentation of five historical interactive works performed on a plywood stage—at the artist’s direction—as a series of plays. Each play will be presented on Fridays and Saturdays for approximately one month, enacted by Tiravanija’s current and former students from Columbia University, where he has taught for over two decades. These plays unfold in chronological order, beginning with untitled 1990 (pad thai) (1990), a work originally presented at New York’s Paula Allen gallery in which pad thai is cooked, and closing with untitled 2011 (t-shirt, no t-shirt) (2011), an atelier where visitors can silkscreen clothing. These site-specific

Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 1990 (pad thai). Ingredients for pad thai, utensils, electric woks, and a lot of people. Installation view, Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE, on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 1993 (café deutschland). 1993. Four chairs, one table, metal shelves, stacked books, mixed media, Turkish coffee, and a lot of people. untitled 1993 (chain letter). 1993. Envelope, letter, and color photocopies of stamped and addressed airmail envelopes. Installation view, Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE, on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 2012 (Remember JK, Universal Futurological Question Mark U. F. O., Zócalo, México City). 2012. Image courtesy kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York. Photo: Michel Zabé & Omar Luis Olguín, 2012

Installation view of Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 2011 (558 broome st, the future is chrome). 2011. Plywood, tempered glass, aluminum window frames, and glazed ceramic with palladium luster. Installation view, Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE, on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 2011 (558 broome st, the future is chrome). 2011. Plywood, tempered glass, aluminum window frames, and glazed ceramic with palladium luster. Private collection. Installation view, Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE, on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

Installation view of Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

Installation view of Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

Installation view of Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 2015 (bangkok boogie woogie, no. 2). 2015. 16 bronze tires, acrylic paint, copper sheets, and single-channel HD video (color, sound). Video: 6 min., 23 sec. Installation view, Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE, on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024.  Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

From left: Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 2011 (erased rirkrit tiravanija demonstration drawing). 2011. Stereo equipment, blue carpet, wooden Thai pillow blocks, drawings, and vinyl. untitled 2007 (demonstration drawings), 2007. Graphite on paper. Installation view, Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE, on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 202. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 1998 (cinéma de ville). 1998. Nylon tent with steel zippers, collapsible aluminum and cane poles, acrylic guy lines, plastic hardware, four dual-density foam mats, projector, and DVD player. Installation view, Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE, on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

Rirkrit Tiravanija. Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbors. 2011. Digital video (color, sound), 149 min. Installation view, Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE, on view at MoMA PS1 from October 12, 2023 through March 4, 2024. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kyle Knodell

Tiravanija cooking tom ka soup at the opening of Brooklyn, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, 1991. Courtesy Tilton Gallery, New York

Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 2011 (t-shirt, no t-shirt). 2011. Installation view, FEAR EATS THE SOUL, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York, 2011. Courtesy Rirkrit Tiravanija Archive, Berlin

Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 1993 (sleep/winter). 1993. Straw mat, foam mattress, cotton, pillow, and duvet. Installation view, Sleepless Nights, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, 1993. Courtesy Rirkrit Tiravanija Archive, Berlin

Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 1992 (cure). 1992. Cloth tent, table, stools, teakettles, hot plate, ceramic teapots and cups, metal shelf, loose Chinese herbal tea, and water. Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. A.W. Mellon Acquisition Endowment Fund. Courtesy Rirkrit Tiravanija Archive, Berlin

Portrait of Rirkrit Tiravanija. 2019. Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and Pilar Corrias, London. Photo: Mark Blower