Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija: the artist

Rirkrit Tiravanija (Buenos Aires, 1961; currently living and working in New York, Berlin, and Chiang Mai, Thailand) has profoundly reshaped our understanding of artistic practice by constantly questioning the very definition of a work of art.

Since the 1990s, Tiravanija has centered his practice on social engagement, often encouraging visitors to interact with and actively participate in his works. The artist’s installations, performances, photographs, films, sculptures, and drawings push beyond conventional boundaries, redefining traditional categories and promoting an environment in which involvement and collaboration are integral to the work.

Tiravanija’s projects stem from an in-depth exploration of cultural identity and the global structures underlying it, questioning the reality and imagination of places.

By recreating everyday activities such as eating, sleeping, and playing, the artist reimagines the exhibition space and rejects its idealization. In doing so, he transforms it into a tangible reality in which ethical and cultural differences are questioned, analyzed, and problematized. The work thus becomes an open process and a tool for dialogue and transformation, encouraging encounters and the development of a living community.

Two main objectives lie at the heart of Tiravanija’s practice: first, he critiques the mechanisms of Western institutions that produce and legitimize knowledge through exhibition practices; second, he searches for artistic forms that can reactivate the context and use of objects, restoring their life force, which often gets stifled by institutions. A key element is the introduction of a communal dimension, where cooking and sharing food in public becomes an artistic act.

“The House That Jack Built”: the exhibition by Rirkrit Tiravanija in Pirelli HangarBicocca

The retrospective “The House That Jack Built,” presented at Pirelli HangarBicocca and curated by Lucia Aspesi and Vicente Todolí, will introduce the public to the artist’s thirty years of research into spatial and architectural practices.

The title refers to the famous 18th-century English nursery rhyme of the same name, which has a repetitive and cumulative structure. Contrary to what the title suggests, the rhyme does not recount the story of the house or its builder. Rather, it reveals how the house is indirectly connected to, and interacts with, the people and things around it. By evoking the rhyme, Tiravanija highlights a solid relationship with issues of authorship, a prevalent theme in his work. The artist conceives buildings as platforms, whose value is determined by their use and the people who inhabit them rather than by their form.

The exhibition will showcase the largest collection of the artist’s architectural works to date, many of which are inspired by iconic buildings of celebrated architects associated with Modernism, including Sigurd Lewerentz, Le Corbusier, Rudolf Michael Schindler, Frederick Kiesler, Jean Prouvé, and Philip Johnson.

With these structures, Tiravanija explores themes related to authorship and reinterprets modernist icons by altering their original function through collective activation and placing them in radically different contexts.

This opens up new possibilities for use, relationship, and meaning. Like cinematic sequences unfolding throughout the exhibition, the show will present a succession of scenarios in which visitors become protagonists. In many installations, the words “a lot of people” appear among the listed materials. Relying on “a lot of people” to bring the work to life means embracing interruptions and unforeseen events: what happens may not match what existed up to that point. Thus, the exhibition is not intended to be a mausoleum of emblematic works from the past. Rather, it is an active, participatory format in which forms are reactivated by different presences and circumstances each time.