demo station: The figure of Le Corbusier and his contribution to architecture

Pirelli HangarBicocca presents "The figure of Le Corbusier and his contribution to architecture".

Through this in-depth exploration, guided by museum mediation, the public is invited to explore some key figures of modernist architecture who played a decisive role in the imagination and artistic practice of Rirkrit Tiravanija. Among these, Le Corbusier holds a central position. The Maison Dom-Ino project (1914) becomes an opportunity to understand how an architectural idea born to respond to a social emergency can transform into an open, flexible, and replicable model. The reinforced concrete structure, with columns and free floor slabs, separates the load-bearing function from the living spaces, introducing a new way of thinking about the organization of everyday life. For Le Corbusier, the house is a “machine for living in,” efficient yet deeply connected to human needs. It is precisely this vision of space as a social device that Tiravanija takes up and reinterprets in the works on display.

The event takes place on Rirkrit Tiravanija’s installation untitled 2026 (demo station no. 9). The stage-like structure invites people to “demonstrate” something. The combination of the words demo and station in the work’s title refers respectively to the abbreviation of demonstration—understood both as a protest and as a presentation of someone’s talent or hobby —and to station, that is, an accessible place where such “demonstrations” can occur. For the duration of the exhibition, the installation provides a space for daily public activations.