The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and TBA21 present a newly commissioned permanently sited work by Rirkrit Tiravanija. Open to the public and situated within the ICA’s lower bar, untitled 2019 (the form of the flower is unknown to the seed) comprises a sake bar with communal seating and tables set within a painted sunrise and sunset. Purpose-built for the ICA, the work includes crockery hand-crafted in Tiravanija’s Chiang Mai studio and lighting created in collaboration with artist Rafael Domenech. 

Tiravanija is known for a practice that overturns traditional exhibition formats in favour of social interactions through the sharing of everyday activities such as cooking, eating and reading. Creating environments that reject the primacy of the art object, and instead focus on use value and the bringing of people together through simple acts and environments of communal care, Tiravanija’s work challenges expectations around labour and virtuosity. 

Born in Buenos Aires and currently living between New York, Berlin and Chiang Mai, Rirkrit Tiravanija is recognised as one of the most influential artists of his generation. Major solo retrospectives include: Rirkrit Tiravanija: Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Green, Hirschhorn Smithsonian Museum, Washington (2019); Tomorrow is the Question/Morgen is de vraag, Museumplein, Amsterdam (2016); Park Avenue Armory, New York (2013); Bonnierskonsthall, Stockholm (2011); Museé de la Ville de Paris (2005); Museum Bojmans Van Beuningen (2004); Chiang Mai University Art Museum (2004); Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo (2002); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1999); and Museum of Modern Art, New York (1997). Tiravanija is 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.