QUEBEC.- The PHI Foundation is pleased to present JOUEZ/PLAY, a solo exhibition by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. Rather than creating art objects for static display, Tiravanija focuses on the interactions between people and their surroundings. As a central tenet of his practice, he encourages visitors to become active participants in the artistic experience, instead of passive consumers of culture. In many of Tiravanija’s artworks, the visitor’s involvement is required in order for the work to be fully realized. In this exhibition and since 2017, he has moved into the realm of illusory speculation, experimenting with technological integrations into artistic forms of practice.
During the 1990s, Tiravanija began producing artworks that revolved around his own personal history, through the restaging of his everyday experiences. By presenting such alternative perspectives, he turns life itself into a work of art. As part of the exhibition at the PHI Foundation, two such works that exemplify his relational and playful approach are featured. Rehearsal Studio No. 6 (1996), consists of an actual music rehearsal studio based on the one Tiravanija used with friends for band rehearsals. Inside the installation, visitors can listen to recordings from past rehearsal sessions and are also welcome to pick up and play the instruments. The installation will also host scheduled rehearsal sessions and organized concerts with Montréal bands. Skip the Bruising (2017), consists of an immersive bar installation that was part of the set for Tiravanija’s frame-by-frame re-creation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1974 film Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. For the duration of the exhibition at the Foundation, this “set” will provide a place for visitors to meet, dwell, and hang out, while the artist’s recreation of the film plays on a television set within the installation. This work will be further activated throughout the run of the show with a program of workshops and events, as well as an actor “playing” bartender who will serve drinks to visitors on certain days of the week. Tiravanija seamlessly operates across the genres of installation, sculpture, and social practice, which are all perfectly conducive to the reinvention of transnational, urban-based identities, and provide a place for all to play.
BIOGRAPHIES
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Rirkrit Tiravanija was raised in Thailand, Ethiopia, and Canada. He studied art in Canada and the United States. Tiravanija is widely recognized as one of the most influential artists of his generation. His work defies media-based description, as his practice combines traditional object making, public and private performances, teaching, and other forms of public service and social action. Winner of the 2005 Hugo Boss Prize awarded by the Guggenheim Museum, Tiravanija was also awarded the Benesse by the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum in Japan and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Lucelia Artist Award. He has had exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum of New York, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Luma Foundation in Arles, and at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam that then was presented in Paris and London. Tiravanija is on the faculty of the School of the Arts at Columbia University and is a founding member and curator of Utopia Station, a collective project of artists, art historians, and curators. Tiravanija is also President of an educational-ecological project known as The Land Foundation, located in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he maintains his primary residence and studio.
Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee (Ph.D) 李林嘉敏 was born on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwu7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories in Vancouver, Canada. She currently holds the appointment of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Chinese Canadian Museum, in British Columbia, Vancouver. From 2019 to 2022, she was the Director of Education and Public Programs at the Vancouver Art Gallery. From 2016 to 2019, she was on the founding team to open Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Art, Hong Kong, serving as the Education and Public Programs Curator.
PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art
Inhabiting the Imaginary
November 3rd, 2023 - March 10th, 2024
