I can be back many galleries in the art world that require a daily delivery of vegetables and fresh food. But that is what it is taking to put on this performance by Rikrit Tiravanija at David’s Zwirner Gallery. The pieces are actually a recreation of a performance that took place in Soho in 1992. There he took the kitchen, office space, storage and bathroom and put that in the exhibition space. He then set up a mobile kitchen in the office space and served a free time meal to visitors. The piece not only disrupted our expectations of public and private space but it created a friendly social atmosphere for the art community to enjoy.
Workers are constructing a replica of 89 Green Street the gallery where this performance first took place. Coincidently, it is the exact same location where 20 years earlier Gordon Matta-Clark displayed his sculpture in a dumpster. The connections between Matta-Clark and Tiravanija run deeper than Soho real estate. Tiravanija piece owes a lot to Matta-Clark’s restaurant food run by and for artist in 1970 Soho and to his radical practice of transforming existing architecture into giant building size sculptures.
Matta-Clark’s piece does not fair as well as Tiravanija’s though, it is hard to compete with the social scene, the free food and the silly graffiti here. He tracks for understanding this piece is a break through use of unconventional and cast away materials. We just do not get Matta-Clark’s outside the box thinking which is actually attracting the admiration of many young artists.
On the other hand the paring demonstrates that today’s major trend towards reevaluating artist of the 70s is really nothing new. It also proves the relevance of Tiravanija’s interactive art even though the art world is a completely different place than it was in 1992 or even 1972. The installation addresses the often heard complain that there is more emphasis in today’s booming art market on selling art than experimenting with new ways of making it. By occupying a provocative in between position the artist is giving away at least part of his work for free while headlining in Chelsea’s biggest gallery.
The chance to meet somebody over lunch counters the anonymity of an art world with thousands of artist and hundreds of galleries. It is also great to come in here and realize that this is not some kind of a private social event but it is something to which you are invited, which brings me to the best part of the show and that is the excellent food.
