The House That Jack Built
March 26–July 26, 2026
Milan 20126
Italy
Hours: Thursday–Sunday 10:30am–8:30pm
Pirelli HangarBicocca presents The House That Jack Built, the first retrospective dedicated to Rirkrit Tiravanija’s architectural and spatial research. In the Navate space, visitors navigate through a gigantic maze where each encounter becomes an opportunity to share experiences of leisure, rest, care, conviviality, and participation.
Rirkrit Tiravanija (Buenos Aires, 1961; currently living and working in New York, Berlin, and Chiang Mai, Thailand) has profoundly reshaped our understanding of artistic practice by constantly questioning the very definition of a work of art. Since the 1990s, the artist has centered his practice on social engagement, often encouraging visitors to interact with and actively participate in his works.
The retrospective The House That Jack Built, curated by Lucia Aspesi and Vicente Todolí presents the largest selection of the artist's architectural works to date, many of which are inspired by buildings of celebrated architects associated with Modernism, including Sigurd Lewerentz, Le Corbusier, Rudolf Michael Schindler, Frederick Kiesler, Jean Prouvé, Carlo Scarpa and Philip Johnson. Through these structures, Tiravanija explores themes related to authorship, reinterpreting modernist icons by shifting their original function through collective activation and placing them in radically different contexts.
The exhibition opens with untitled 2026 (demo station no. 9) (2026), a spiral-shaped wooden platform inspired by Austrian architect Friedrich Kiesler's (1890–1965) Raumbühne (1924). The installation hosts a series of daily public activities spanning from music, performance, theatre, hands-on and creative practices, reading, fashion, dance, environmental initiatives, and social and community activities. Thanks to collaborations with various Milan-based organizations, schools and associations, the installation becomes a stage for encounters, dialogue, and exchange throughout the entire duration of the show.
Conceived specifically for the space, the exhibition path unfolds as a maze constructed from scaffolding and orange fabric, a characteristic of many of the artist's works and reminiscent of Buddhist monks' robes. Upon entering the maze, visitors encounter the works, one by one, spaces designed for interaction and exchange. The show develops like a cinematic sequence: a succession of scenes to walk through and explore, where visitors become protagonists. Alongside architectural replicas of iconic buildings, temporary tent structures appear as archetypes of minimal housing and porous space that encourages community interaction, such as untitled 1992 (cure) (1992) where visitors are invited to pause, relax, and drink tea.
The show includes untitled 2026 (half-scale single family home no. 47, with interior decoration by children of scuola bambini bicocca and “ABC del quartiere,” ages 4 to 6) (2026) which consists of two models of houses conceived by the artist as play spaces for children. Each module is a half-scale reconstruction of the Single Family House no. 47 (1930) by architect Sigurd Lewerentz (1885–1975), a prototype designed to showcase the possibilities of modern living at the 1930 Stockholm Arts and Crafts Exhibition. It is also presented, untitled 1998 (dom-ino) (2026) that engages with one of the most radical and influential systems of modern architecture, the Dom-ino House designed in 1914 by Le Corbusier (1887–1965). Tiravanija follows the fundamental concept, replicating it in wood, preserving its basic construction logic and highlighting the systemic nature of the model, transforming it into a space animated by games designed for play, encounter, and shared experience.
As visitors exit the maze, they enter the Cubo, where the work untitled 2009 (the house the cat built) (2026), a wooden house inspired by Tiravanija’s home in Thailand containing works by artists who are his friends or closely associated with his practice—Thomas Bayrle, Peter Kogler, Jakob Kolding, Udomsak Krisanamis, Gabriel Kuri, Jorge Pardo, Tobias Rehberger, Martha Rosler, Shimabuku, Andreas Slominski—, including a selection by the artist himself.
Catalog
The accompanying monograph collects the latest critical studies on Rirkrit Tiravanija's work, focusing on the spatial and architectural dimensions explored in his solo exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca. Designed by Francesca Grassi, the volume features essays by curator Francesco Bonami and historian and theorist Beatriz Colomina, a conversation between Tiravanija and architect Frida Escobedo, and detailed descriptions of the exhibited works by Mistura Allison, Claudette Lauzon, Chiara Lupi, Tatiana Palenzona, Teodora di Robilant, Mathilde Roman, Robert Melvin Rubin, Jörn Schafaff, David Toop, and Christopher Wierling. It also includes an unpublished dialogue between the artist and the exhibition curators, Lucia Aspesi and Vicente Todolí, along with exhibition images and project documentation.
Pirelli HangarBicocca
Pirelli HangarBicocca is a non-profit foundation dedicated to producing and promoting contemporary art. It was conceived and is supported by Pirelli. Established in 2004, Pirelli HangarBicocca has become a benchmark institution for the international and local art community. The museum is free of charge, accessible and open, as well as a place for experimentation, research and dissemination. It presents a programme of major solo exhibitions, multi-disciplinary events, publications, and educational courses.Vicente Todolí has been the foundation’s artistic director since 2012.
Situated in a former industrial building, once a locomotive manufacturing facility, Pirelli HangarBicocca occupies 15,000 square metres, making it one of the largest single-level exhibition spaces in Europe. This vast area comprises the permanent installation of Anselm Kiefer’s The Seven Heavenly Palaces 2004-2015.
