Untitled 2008-2011 (the map of the land of feeling) I-III, the monumental print project by Columbia University School of the Arts Visual Arts Program Professor Rirkrit Tiravanija, opens September 8 at Carolina Nitsch Project Room in New York.
The project was created from 2009 to 2011 at the School of the Arts LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies, where it was overseen by the center's artistic director, Tomas Vu Daniel. It was the focus of a feature article in Art in America magazine in June/July 2011.
Untitled 2008-2011 is a three-part scroll, 3 feet high and 84 feet in length, that utilizes a combination of techniques including screen-print, offset lithography, and inkjet print reproductions of the artist’s passport over 20 years, from 1988 to 2008. The passports run as a central band through each of the scrolls and underlay or overlap an assortment of images including city maps, archeological and architectural sites, mazes, time zones, illustrations of urban flow, notebook pages, and recipes.
The project essentially chronicles the last 20 years of Tiravanija's life, his recurring themes and historical references. The maps and arrows record locations where he has traveled and exhibited. There are recipes that refer to his practice of preparing and feeding visitors at his exhibitions. Interspersed throughout each of the scrolls are repeated silhouettes of iconic art works by Duchamp and Broodthaers; Duchamp’s famous “Fountain” inspired Tiravanija to become an artist and Marcel Broodthaers incorporation of mussels in pots as appropriated objects clearly influenced Tiravanija’s own cooking performances and installations.
Tiravanija was born to Thai parents in Buenos Aires in 1963 and was raised in Argentina, Bangkok, Ethiopia, and Canada. His work is both autobiographical and relational to the societies and institutions he lives in and passes through. 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.
He is the winner of the 2010 Absolut Art Award and 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. In 2010, he had a retrospective exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, as well as a previous retrospective exhibition at the Museum Bojmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam that was then presented in Paris and London. Tiravanija is a founding member and curator of Utopia Station, a collective project of artists, art historians, and curators. He is also president of an educational-ecological project known as The Land Foundation, located in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and is part of a collective alternative space called VER located in Bangkok, where he maintains his primary residence and studio.
Carolina Nitsch Project Room is located at 534 West 22nd Street in New York. For more information, 212-645-2030 or info@carolinanitsch.com
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Untitled 2008-2011(the map of the land of feeling) (detail scroll II)
Digitally transferred actual-size repro of artist passports,
mounted on 3 scrolls with silkscreen, chine collé, giclée and hand work
Three scrolls, 36 x 336 inches each
Edition of 40
