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Rirkrit Tiravanija

CCA Project Gallery presented a new work by Rirkrit Tiravanija, lives and works in New York, Berlin and Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In January 2008, the artist Thomas Demand discovered on his visit during his residency at CCA Kitakyushu a curious building in the middle of a parking lot not too far a walk from a train station in Kokura. Perhaps by chance, he came upon a curiously narrow and oddly sited three story building. Further upon his inquiry, he discovered that the three-story building was actually housing a very small karaoke bar. In his project from March 2008, Thomas Demand made his work around the small building, its curious architecture and site in relationship to the exhibition that he produced in CCA Project Gallery.

Since then the Black Label, the name of the bar has become a stopping point for many of the visitors to CCA. Because of its connection to the project by Thomas Demand and for its convivial hostess, Teruko Ikegami who took in and cared for with welcoming warmth, all the guests associated with the CCA Kitakyushu.

“My first visit to the Black Label came about a year ago when I was visiting and preplanning for my project at the CCA. From that visit I was able to have the pleasure of experiencing the bar as a place of entertainment and of curiosity, mainly for its location and its phenomenally compact scale. But the atmosphere and the warmth and comfort one received from the hostess herself, hooked me to her charm and generosity. With great impression I began the process of wanting to address the other story of the Black label, one of human experience and exchange. With Thomas Demand’s work as my starting point, hence the title, THOMAS DEMANDs HERE; the project I would like to present here at the CCA will be a combination of both sculptural and relational elements. Again working with locality and existing models, through the observation of everyday conditions and the inhabitants of Kitakyushu and its neighborhood.” – Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija stayed in CCA Kitakyushu as Professor of Research Program from February 16 – March 4, 2013.

This post is also available in: Japanese