Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija (born in 1961, Buenos Aires, Argentina) was raised in Thailand, Ethiopia, and Canada. He studied at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Banff Center School of Fine Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Whitney Independent Studies Program in New York. Since the 1990s, Tiravanija has aligned his artistic production with an ethic of social engagement, often inviting viewers to inhabit and activate his work. One of his best-known series is “Pad Thai” (1990) at the Paula Allen Gallery in New York. Tiravanija rejected traditional art objects altogether and instead cooked and served food for exhibition visitors. For his second solo exhibition in New York, held at 303 Gallery in 1992, Tiravanija filled the white rooms with stacks of cultural cast-offs, rendering the space into what seemed like a storage facility, demoting the primacy of the revered art object. In 2022, he was the artistic director of Okayama Art Summit 2022. He was awarded the Silpathorn Award by the Ministry of Culture in Thailand in 2017, and also received numerous grants and awards, such as the Hugo Boss Prize (2004) and the Benesse Prize (2003).