The Land

One of the ways landscape art may evolve in the future is in the development of actual sites by artists, not simply for aesthetic purposes, as in, say, Roden Crater, but for the purposes of social engagement and interaction. Rirkrit Tiravanija's project The Land is a good example of this. Hans Ulrich Obrist describes it as 'a large-scale collaborative and transdisciplinary project taking place on a plot of land that Tiravanija purchased in the village of Sanpatong, near Chiang Mai, Thailand. The Land is a laboratory for self-sustainable development but it is also a site where a new model for art and a new model for living are being tested out.'

Tiravanija was a participant in 'Remote possibilities: a roundtable discussion on Land art's changing terrain', which appeared in the Summer 2005 Artforum (the whole discussion is worth reading). There he stressed the difference between The Land and earlier land art: 'The Land in itself is just a land, a leveled field to be acted on, and we request that this action be in the sphere of the everyday. Which is to say that we do not encourage earthworks unless we can eat, drink, or live from them. At this point we are more interested in sustainable infrastructure than outdoor sculpture.'

The Walker Art Center has an entertaining video of Tiravanija talking to Bruce Sterling.