Run like hell

Rirkrit Tiravanija’s new work, at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris, seems an ironical attempt to construct a mausoleum for the now defunct punk aesthetic.

Riirkrit Tiravanija, Run like hell, 2015 detail
Rirkrit Tiravanija’s new work Untitled 2015 (run like hell), on display in Paris, seems an ironical attempt to construct a mausoleum for the now defunct punk aesthetic and celebrate the sense of alienation, perhaps for the purity of the marble or the super-clean sanitary fixtures – washbasins and lavatories that greet visitors to the gallery.
This is all the more so given the adoption of ingredients such as Lardo di Colonnata, a pure fat product we happily associate with exquisite and age-old taste experiences.
A perfectly functioning 1:1 scale version concealed behind the main Chantal Crosel gallery entrance reproduces the toilets of the legendary CBGB in New York, a club that became a punk shrine in the 1970s and closed in 2006, in a clear reference to the gentrification process underway throughout the Lower East Side. A reliquary version of the real CBGB survives in John Varvatos’ luxury boutique, where its walls and a large quantity of posters and memorabilia is conserved intact.
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (cul-de-sac), 2015
Top: Rirkrit Tiravanija, Run Like Hell, 2015, marble, 36 x 300 x 350 cm., detail. Above: Untitled (cul-de-sac), 2015, Plywood, wooden beams, urinals, toilet, modulated resin, clear lacquer, 330 x 190 x 490 cm. Exhibition view, Untitled 2015 (run like hell), Galerie Chantal Crousel. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris. © Florian Kleinefenn
Here, this phantom presence and precise sampling from a real context are of a different nature and ready-made strategies are cancelled out. Of all the many nuances that have accompanied the thoughts and body fluids that passed over Mr Robert Mutt’s white ceramic (the name Duchamp signed on the founding ready-made urinal in 1917), Rirkrit Tiravanija’s display is a true exception and the invitation to use it crosses even its boundaries.
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (cul-de-sac), 2015
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (cul-de-sac), 2015, plywood, wooden beams, urinals, toilet, modulated resin, clear lacquer, 330 x 190 x 490 cm. Exhibition view, Untitled 2015 (run like hell), Galerie Chantal Crousel. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris. © Florian Kleinefenn

Taking a leak in one of France’s most highly regarded galleries seems quite irreverent and prompts thoughts on how the work of so many of his colleagues has evolved. Some, such as Pierre Huygue, uproot paving stones to construct sophisticated micro-environments on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Others, like Philippe Parreno, stage multimedia super-productions at the Park Avenue Armory. But where has all the early energy gone?

The impression given by an investigation of the relationship between subject and object is that everything is caught up in the reflections of British sociologist Dick Hebdige who, about 30 years ago, lifted the lid on the powerful and unnatural fascination with subcultures. One of his pieces on style, based on an analysis of the punk aesthetic, gave the movement a theoretical reputation. An immense theoretical production and rereading of youth phenomena, from punk to grunge, placed the counterculture scene on a par with high culture. Artists started harbouring a desire for legends and biopics, just like the most famous rockstars, helping to extend the domain of the punk aesthetic. 

Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (run like hell), 2015
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Run Like Hell, 2015, marble, 36 x 300 x 350 cm and Untitled (cul-de-sac), 2015, plywood, wooden beams, urinals, toilet, modulated resin, clear lacquer, 330 x 190 x 490 cm. Exhibition view, Untitled 2015 (run like hell), Galerie Chantal Crousel. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris. © Florian Kleinefenn

Tiravanija presents today’s art world with this simple exercise of turning the tables. He relaunches the construction of altars and sanctuaries, like this one in real marble: no longer the typical set for a hard-core performance but an unconscious monument to its impracticability.

Guitar, bass and drums all function perfectly and can be used but everything remains mute and, actually, unnatural. It is an explant of materials from their original setting and Tiravanija cites the Parthenon metope and marbles just like a modern-day Lord Elgin.

Rirkrit Tiravanija, Run Like Hell, 2015
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Run Like Hell, 2015, marble, 36 x 300 x 350 cm. Exhibition view, Untitled 2015 (run like hell), Galerie Chantal Crousel. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris. © Marianna Capuano
The exhibition measures the effort and significance of the re-enactment that has become so fashionable. Today, Classicism with a capital C is portable and even prêt-à-porter, as too the idea of postmodern vintage. The artist, who is known for serving excellent meals to the huge art public – and whose popular curries and soups have left traces in the public and private collections of museums worldwide – is now pushing himself farther. He does not want to resemble anyone else except in the marketability of the piece. His tasty and fragrant Lardo di Colonnata may be a bitter pill served up to the art system but it will not halt the obsession of collecting and trading in relics.
His marble basins for maturing the fatty pork back are minimal parallelepipeds, arranged on the gallery floor and filled with edible fat which is not the same as Beuys rounding the corners of the Modern. Immersed in the rhetoric on food and eco-sustainability, in this alchemic mix of punk and classicism, all that springs to mind is the simple meal of Carrara marble workers and nostalgia for non-alignment.
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