Film Programme for the Last Exhibition Weekend

The programme starts with Rirkrit Tiravanija’s film Chew the Fat (2008), in which he engages in conversations with twelve artists: Douglas Gordon, Angela Bulloch, Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Elizabeth Peyton, Tobias Rehberger, Carsten Höller, Liam Gillick, Jorge Pardo, Andrea Zittel and Maurizio Cattelan. Everyone featured in the film – including Tiravanija – belongs to a generation of artists whose practices have been defined as “relational aesthetics” by curator and critic Nicolas Bourriaud in the 1990s. The term describes artistic approaches that focus on human relationships and social conditions. Tiravanija is also good friends with the artists interviewed: in addition to their artistic careers, the in-depth conversations focus on personal topics, ideas and memories.

In the film Karl’s Perfect Day (2017), Tiravanija accompanies Karl Holmqvist, an artist and his friend, through an entire day in Berlin: from getting out of bed and brushing his teeth, crossing the city by bike, meeting friends, to reading aloud on the balcony. Since the 1990s, Holmqvist has been using different types of text – from poetry to advertising slogans – and reassembling them in new ways. The film is a detailed portrait of a day with Holmqvist, that adapts entirely to his rhythm. 

Closing the programme, the film Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbours (2011) documents the everyday rural life of sixty-year-old Lung Neaw (Uncle Neaw). Tiravanija shows the former rice farmer fishing, hunting and gathering herbs. He also accompanies him on his numerous visits and encounters – from the local sage, to the elephant king in the valley, to the children in his own front yard.