(up against the wall motherfuckers)

Rirkrit Tiravanija
  • Ongoing
  • Artist Intervention

This mural was composed over the course of the exhibition Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE (October 12, 2023–March 4, 2024) by artists who work at the museum and members of Queens-based organizations including Teen Art Salon and Make the Road New York. The charcoal drawings are tracings of photographs, sourced from print and digital media outlets, of protests against recent book bans in public schools across the US, a topic at the heart of contemporary debates over education, censorship, and how history is told. Since 2002, Tiravanija has clipped and saved images of demonstrations from major international newspapers, charting recent and historic activism occurring despite the pervasive sense that there is, as he put it at the time, “no future.” Tiravanija has created numerous drawings and murals based on this collected media imagery, in each instance inviting collaborators to execute them.

Location

MoMA PS1

22-25 Jackson Avenue Queens, NY 11101

Credits

Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE is organized by Ruba Katrib, Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, MoMA PS1, and Yasmil Raymond, guest curator, with Jody Graf and Kari Rittenbach, Assistant Curators, MoMA PS1.

Sponsors

Major support for Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE is provided by Maja Hoffmann / Luma Foundation, the Family of Lise Stolt-Nielsen, the Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, and the International Council of The Museum of Modern Art.

Generous support is provided by Glenstone Foundation and Ellen and Michael Ringier.

Additional support is provided by Steven and Alexandra Cohen, Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg, and Craig Robins and Jackie Soffer. Funding is also provided by Eileen and Michael Cohen and Laura Steinberg and Bernardo Nadal-Ginard.

Special thanks to Artek and Jungly Restaurant.

See the mural's evolution over the course of Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE.