Rirkrit Tiravanija
March 26 – July 26, 2026 | Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan
Rirkrit Tiravanija’s career retrospective The House that Jack Built, presented at Pirelli Hangar Bicocca and curated by Lucia Aspesi and Vicente Todolí, introduces the public to the artist’s thirty years of research into spatial and architectural practices.
The title refers to the famous 19th-century English nursery rhyme of the same name, which has a repetitive and cumulative structure. Contrary to what the title suggests, the rhyme does not recount the story of the house or its builder. Rather, it reveals how the house is indirectly connected to, and interacts with, the people and things around it. By evoking the rhyme, Tiravanija highlights a solid relationship with issues of authorship, a prevalent theme in his work. The artist conceives buildings as platforms, whose value is determined by their use and the people who inhabit them rather than by their form.
The exhibition will showcase the largest collection of the artist’s architectural works to date, many of which are inspired by iconic buildings of celebrated architects associated with Modernism, including Sigurd Lewerentz, Le Corbusier, Rudolf Michael Schindler, Frederick Kiesler, Jean Prouvé, and Philip Johnson.