Visitors invited to play ping-pong in Remai Modern installation
For immediate release — January 16, 2019
SASKATOON, CANADA — On January 19, Remai Modern opens an interactive installation by internationally acclaimed artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. Tomorrow is the Question features five ping-pong tables, each of which bears the exhibition title on its surface. Visitors are invited to play ping-pong in the space, creating an unexpected museum experience where people become part of the art.
Tomorrow is the Question is a reactivation of a project by Slovakian artist Július Koller (1939-2007). In his installation Ping-Pong Society, which took place in Bratislava in 1970, Koller set up a ping-pong club rather than a formal exhibition. Koller often used everyday objects in his practice to question the world and cultural contexts. Doing so, he hoped to create a kind of utopia in unusual places.
“Remai Modern aims to be a place where visitors can have surprising, challenging and memorable experiences with contemporary art. Rirkrit Tiravanija’s work embodies a spirit of discovery, disruption and engagement, which fits perfectly into the museum’s programmatic vision” said Gregory Burke, Remai Modern’s Executive Director & CEO.
Tiravanija, whose work is concerned with visitor experience and how people interact with art, first installed his version of Koller’s project at kurimanzutto, Mexico City in 2012. The project has also been shown at Garage Museum, Moscow; and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, among others.
Tomorrow is the Question, curated by Sandra Guimarães, Director of Programs & Chief Curator, takes place in Remai Modern’s Connect Gallery, which is always free to the public thanks to the generous support of TD. Visitors are invited to play at the tables or observe games in progress as they participate in the vision of two ground-breaking artists.
“In this project, Rirkrit creates a communal environment where audience members participate in the work,” said Guimarães. “We welcome everyone into the Connect Gallery to take part in an artwork that pushes and questions the possibilities of the gallery space, and engages the audience in a playful experience of art.”
In conjunction with the exhibition, Remai Modern will host a table tennis clinic in the gallery on February 9 from 2 PM-4:30 PM, led by a coach from Table Tennis Saskatchewan.
Tomorrow is the Question runs in Remai Modern’s Connect Gallery until March 24.
About Rirkrit Tiravanija
Rirkrit Tiravanija is a contemporary artist residing in New York City, Berlin, Chiang Mai and Lamma Island, Hong Kong. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961. His installations often take the form of stages or rooms for sharing meals, cooking, reading or playing music; architecture or structures for living and socializing are a core element in his work.
Tiravanija received his BA from the Ontario College of Art in 1984 and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1986. From 1985-1986, he participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program.
Tiravanija is the winner of the 2004 Hugo Boss Prize and the 2010 Absolut Art Award. Recent solo exhibitions include untitled 2018 (the infinite dimensions of smallness), National Gallery Singapore (2018); (curry for the soul of the forgotten), Neugerriemschneider, Berlin (2017); Utopia station, Brooklyn Museum (2017); The fire is gone but we have the light, with Korakrit Arunanondchai, Johnson Museum of Art (2016).
About Remai Modern
Remai Modern is a new museum of modern and contemporary art in Saskatoon. It aims to be a vibrant, imaginative and prescient museum committed to affirming the powerful role that art and artists play in questioning, interpreting and defining the modern era. Remai Modern is home to the world’s foremost collection of Picasso linocut prints, and aspires to be a leading centre for contemporary Indigenous art programming.
For additional information contact:
Stephanie McKay, Communications Manager
306.975.2242
smckay@remaimodern.org
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Remai Modern is situated on Treaty 6 Territory and the Traditional Homeland of the Métis.
We pay our respects to First Nations and Métis ancestors and reaffirm our relationship with one another.