As a prelude to the public opening of La Triennale 2012 at the Palais de Tokyo and associated institutions in and around Paris on April 20th, the renowned contemporary artist Rirkrit Tiravanija will present Soup/No Soup, a project which will transform the main nave of Grand Palais into an enormous, festive, twelve-hour banquet composed of a single meal of Tom Ka soup. Open to all, this project, which is presented for the first time in Paris, is a large-scale version of an earlier artwork, Soup/No Soup, which premiered at his exhibition in January 2011 in New York.
On Saturday, April 7th, from noon until midnight, for 12 hours non-stop, the Grand Palais will be open to the public, to share and sample a soup prepared and offered by the artist and his team. Generous yet modest, collective yet singular, Soup/No Soup convenes a summoning of all, where each and everyone will be able to enjoy a transactional, immaterial artistic experience based on exchange, encounter, and generosity. From being a passive spectator, the visitor becomes a participant in a developing work.
With Soup/No Soup, La Triennale right away declares its desire to federate all its energies round an ambitious artistic project that is open to all. In addition to Soup/No Soup, La Triennale 2012 will feature a project by Rirkrit Tiravanija in the Palais de Tokyo.