Rirkrit Tiravanija

In Thailand monks predict their country's fate lies in water - flooding will destroy their homeland, cities in the north whose names begin with either a "Chiang" or "Lam" will be spared, all the others will be ravaged by the deluge.

For his fourth solo show at Galerie Chantal Crousel, aptly titled Asile Flottant the artist Rirkrit Tirvanija has constructed a sketch of Le Corbusier's boat of the same name and inserted a section of it into the gallery. Le Corbusier's barge was designed for the Salvation Army literally as a floating asylum meant to provide temporary over night shelter for vagrants wandering the streets of Paris. Tiravanija's barge, constructed in Chiang Mai, Thailand, will serve as a pavilion that houses both political T-shirts designed by the artist, and others that have been collected from all over the world. Highlighting the ability of what we wear to act as a platform for interaction and communication, Tiravanija activates the t-shirt as political space.

Visitors to the gallery will be allowed to enter the pavilion and experience the rehabilitation project designed by Le Corbusier in half scale proportion to the original. However, the entire configuration, which does not fit within the space of the gallery, will be exhibited in part, proposing that the reconciliation between utopian architecture and social reality is an exchange with unavoidable complications.

Alongside the barge Tiravanija will exhibit a new suite of T-shirt Demonstration Drawings made from images taken from the press where demonstrators wearing t-shirts bearing political slogans represent dissent. The drawings are an ongoing project by the artist where young Thai artists are commissioned to create drawings of images ripped from the press. Part of the proceeds from the drawings benefits "The Land Foundation" in the village of Sanpatong, Thailand. The Land Foundation is a sustainable community founded in part by Tiravanija.

Le Corbusier's floating asylum as represented by Tiravanija is transformed into an archive of political demonstration, a pavilion that serves to collect and exhibit an ongoing history of the political t-shirt in relationship to the political climate of today. Calling into question how information is consumed and distributed within contemporary culture and more importantly how we are always active participants.

Rirkrit Tiravanija