A Cup of Sake in the Gallery
ICA exhibition: Untitled 2019 (The form of the flower is unknown to the seed)
In a dark space, there is a narrow long table, low wooden chairs are stretched out and lit paper lights hang above people’s heads. All of these components hint at the setting of a ‘Sake Bar’. The kitchen staff are constantly busy carrying food, the plates clatter as they continuously flow through the space. There are no TV screens or paintings, magazines on the wall or table. It’s just a Sake Bar where anyone can sit, drink, and chat for a long time.
If you don’t look carefully you may miss the title of the exhibition which is printed subtly in small black vinyl on the entrance wall. You may not notice that this is an exhibition. The artist’s name is not present in the exhibition. If it’s your first visit to the ICA, maybe you’ll mistake this ‘Sake Bar’ as an extension of the art galleries café and wonder why a dedicated space has been made for drinking sake.
Generally speaking, exhibitions are aimed at enhancing people’s aesthetic appreciation. But, in this Sake Bar, the artist has been hidden, instead only the conversation of the visitors fills the space. How can this place be part of an art gallery? It doesn’t really matter whether this is an art gallery or a Sake bar. It’s just enough for you to sit at the table, eat pleasantly, and have a good conversation. How many times have you enjoyed visiting an art gallery or museum?
In ‘Philosophical Investigations’ (1953), Ludwig Wittgenstein said, “Meaning is use”, and put importance on use over meaning. Artworks constantly change form, aspect, and function according to time and social context. This artwork is not presented in the typical fashion of a solemn white cube, no trace of agonizing curators can be found. The audience are just eating and making noise, there is little exchange of art jargon or discourse occurring in this space. Usually, radical artists like to make a piece of art and annotate as if it were something great. In this space, however, food is ‘just’ food without any pretensions, and it is the catalyst that helps you cheer up and chat harder. After all, the art gallery is not showing something eye-catching, but making relationships and connection. French critic and curator Nicolas Bourriaud calls this type of artwork an example of “relational aesthetics”. I feel it is an accurate interpretation.
Of course, existing general art exhibitions are not entirely incapable of forming relationships. Between artist and audiences, curators and visitors, they form a one-sided, silent relationship with each other through the medium of artworks. The white and solemn art gallery was like a kind of chapel infused with the dogma of modern art. But In this permanent artwork, Tiravanija overthrows this traditional relationship and attempts to create real-time relationships between audiences. Beyond interactive art where audiences participate in the completion of the work, the acts of audiences themselves became an artwork. There is no watching of curators forcing something on visitors, nor is there any nagging, such as “NO TOUCH” or “BE QUIET”. Like the title of the exhibition “The form of the flower is unknown to the seed”, eventually, the form of the exhibition is unknown to the audiences.
“It is not what you see that is important but what takes place between people”
-Tiravanija
Artist
Rirkrit Tiravanija is an Argentine-born Thai artist who has lived in the US, Thailand and Germany. Due to his multicultural background, he works on the themes of culture, environment and community in the global era, and his artworks are referred to as a concept art and cultural activism. Establishing himself as an artist in New York in 1992 and he is well known for a series of meal serving projects in Leipzig, Tokyo and Venice. The project, launched at the 303 Gallery in Chelsea, New York, under the title of “Free” is considered an important art practice in that it offered food every day. His works ask questions about existing exhibition. In addition, he transforms art galleries into a café, lounge, library or music studio to provide routine services, thereby placing the relationship between works and space and audiences in a new context, further exploring social relationships such as community problems and presenting a meeting place.
untitled 2019 (the form of the flower is unknown to the seed) continues until the 6 January 2020 at Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA).
All images courtesy of Jong-Kyun Kim.
Additional resources
1. Kyle Chayka, ‘WTF is… Relational Aesthetics?’, hyperallergic https://hyperallergic.com/18426/wtf-is-relational-aesthetics/
2. untitled 2019 (the form of the flower is unknown to the seed), ICA(Institute of Contemporary Arts) Homepage. https://www.ica.art/exhibitions/untitled-2019
3. Louisa Buck, ‘Rirkrit Tiravanija offers cups of sake and space for contemplation at the ICA’, the art newspaper. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/rikrit-tiravanija-offers-sake-and-pause-for-thought-at-the-ica
4. Ellen Mara De Wachter, ‘What Happens When Artists Run Restaurants?’, FRIEZE
https://frieze.com/article/what-happens-when-artists-run-restaurants
5. Rirkrit Tiravanija | Untitled (Free/Still), YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xRx2s3FpSg
▄ Jongkyun Kim
Jong-Kyun Kim is a current student at MA Curating Contemporary Design Kingston School of Art. He finished his design degree at Seoul National University and Intellectual property law at Chungnam National University. He has written several books under the theme of Korean design history, design/trademark law, and participated in several exhibitions.
Peer Reviewed by: May (Meilin Wang)
Editor: Carmel Wilkinson-Ayre
