Rirkrit Tiravanija Cooking and Drawing Event at Art Basel 2011

In his event at Art 42 Basel, the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija merged two typologies of his oeuvre: cooking-as-event and political drawing. It was first launched under the title “who’s afraid of red, yellow, and green” at 100 Tonson Gallery in Bangkok / Thailand in 2010, at a time when there was an intense conflict between “red” and “yellow” shirt protesters. Red, yellow, and green Thai curries, as visitors were invited to add charcoal drawings to the white gallery walls, showing political motives. In Basel, this was repeated with a different topic. The project is usually conceived for a given space according to the socio-political context of the surrounding region.

In this conversation with Dr. Bettina Krogemann, the managing director of 100 Tonson Gallery, Aey Phanachet, talks about the concept of the work, the involvement of the visitors and how it was received by collectors. 100 Tonson Gallery is the only gallery from Southeast Asia taking part in Art Basel 2011.

Rirkrit Tiravanija cooking-as-event and political drawing at the booth of 100 Tonson Gallery, Art 42 Basel (Art Feature sector). Basel / Switzerland, June 17, 2011.

PS: Click here for a firsthand report that describes what it’s like to draw for Rirkrit Tiravanija by Georgina Lee at Not-Quite-Critics.

PPS: See also Rirkrit Tiravanija’s exhibition “Fear Eats the Soul” at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York.

> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.