The House That Jack Built

Pirelli HangarBicocca presents The House That Jack Built, the first retrospective dedicated to the architectural and spatial research of Rirkrit Tiravanija, a central figure in relational art. In the Navate, the exhibition unfolds as an inhabitable labyrinth that invites the public to take part in experiences of encounter, participation, and sharing, transforming the exhibition space into a living environment.

Long engaged in redefining the role of the artwork, Tiravanija conceives art as an open and situational process, in which everyday actions such as eating, pausing, or conversing become tools of relation. His practice, shaped by a global perspective, explores tensions between local and global, between travel and belonging, activating forms of sociality that challenge traditional institutional models.

The exhibition brings together a wide selection of installations and structures inspired by icons of Modernism, reinterpreted as functional devices and collective platforms. Architecture sheds its formal dimension to become an active space, defined by the presences that move through it. The title refers to a cumulative nursery rhyme in which each element exists in relation to the others, suggesting a reflection on authorship and interdependence.

The exhibition path unfolds as a sequence of environments to inhabit: tents, care spaces, meeting areas, and modular structures host shared practices and moments of activation. In this context, even the unexpected becomes an integral part of the work. The retrospective does not present itself as a static archive, but as a dynamic device that transforms through the experience of its visitors, reaffirming art as a space of relation and collective construction.