Rirkrit Tiravanija's Pledges Of Allegiance Flag Flies Across 21 Locations In America

Today, Creative Time raises artist Rirkrit Tiravanija's Pledges of Allegiance flag, Untitled 2017 (fear eats the soul) (white flag). The flag will be on view at twenty-one cultural institutions and universities across sixteen states: California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Texas.

The message of Rirkrit Tiravanija's flag is a reference to German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, the English translation of 'Angst essen Seele auf'. The film first appeared in Tiravanija's Untitled 1994 (Fear Eats the Soul), a bar he constructed at Esther Schipper's storefront gallery in Cologne that served only beer and cola. Fassbinder's two lead characters, a German cleaner and a Moroccan mechanic, meet in the film's opening scene over the aforesaid drinks, and commence an unlikely relationship that brings out their own deepest fears as much as the xenophobia and racism of their surroundings.

Tiravanija's flag is the twelfth installment of the series, which has grown from two to twenty-one partner locations since Creative Time initiated the project in June 2017. Creative Time has previously worked with Rirkrit Tiravanija on Living as Form, a large-scale survey exhibition that brought together twenty-five curators and featured over 100 artists' projects at the historic Essex Street Market building.

Tiravanija's flag will be raised across the following twenty-one locations:

1. Creative Time Headquarters - 59 E 4th St, New York, NY

2. 21C Museum Hotel Durham - 111 Corcoran St, Durham, NC

3. Atlanta Contemporary - 535 Means Street, NW, Atlanta, GA

4. Blue Star Contemporary - 116 Blue Star, San Antonio, TX

5. California College of the Arts - 1111 8th St, San Fransisco, CA

6. The Commons, in partnership with the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas - 1340 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, KS

7. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University - 114 Central Ave, Ithaca, NY

8. John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Brown University - 357 Benefit Street, Providence, RI 02906

9. KMAC Museum - 715 W Main St, Louisville, KY

10. Light City - Baltimore's waterfront from the South Shore of the Inner Harbor to Harbor East, Baltimore, MD

11. MASS MoCA - 1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247

12. Mid-America Arts Alliance - 2018 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO

13. Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit - 4454 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI

14. Pratt Institute - 200 Willoughby Avenue, South Hall 1, Brooklyn, NY

15. RISD Museum - 224 Benefit Street, Providence, RI

16. SPACE - 536 Congress Street, Portland, ME

17. Texas State Galleries - 233 West Sessom Drive, San Marcos, TX

18. The Union for Contemporary Art - 2423 N 24th Street, Omaha, NE

19. University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum - 3821 USF Holly Dr, Tampa, FL

20. Wassaic Project - 37 Furnace Bank Road, Wassaic, NY

21. Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University - 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ
    

Upcoming Pledges of Allegiance flags include LaToya Ruby Frazier, Ahmet Ögüt, Vik Muniz, and Josephine Meckseper.

ABOUT RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA
Rirkrit Tiravanija was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961 and grew up in Thailand, Ethiopia and Canada. His practice defies media-based description combining traditional object making, public and private performances, teaching, and other forms of public service and social action.

ABOUT PLEDGES OF ALLEGIANCE
Pledges of Allegiance is a nationwide public art project by Creative Time. The project is a serialized commission of sixteen flags, each created by acclaimed contemporary artists: Tania Bruguera, Alex Da Corte, Jeremy Deller, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Ann Hamilton, Robert Longo, Josephine Meckseper, Marilyn Minter, Vik Muniz, Jayson Musson, Ahmet Ögüt, Yoko Ono, Trevor Paglen, Pedro Reyes, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Nari Ward.

Each flag embodies art's ability to channel political passion, providing a unifying symbol around which to unite, as well as a call-to-action for institutions nationwide to raise upcoming Pledges of Allegiance flags in solidarity with Creative Time.

Pledges of Allegiance aims to inspire a sense of community among cultural institutions, beginning with an urgent articulation of the political demands of the moment. Each flag points to an issue the artist is passionate about or a cause they believe is worth fighting for, and speaks to how we might move forward collectively as a country. To inaugurate the project, Creative Time raised Marilyn Minter's RESIST FLAG on the roof of its headquarters on Flag Day, June 14.

Pledges of Allegiance was originally conceived by Alix Browne and developed in collaboration with Cian Browne, Fabienne Stephan, and Opening Ceremony.

ABOUT CREATIVE TIME
Creative Time, the New York based public arts non-profit, is committed to working with artists on the dialogues, debates, and dreams of our time. Creative Time presents the most innovative art in the public realm, providing new platforms to amplify artists' voices, including the Creative Time Summit, an international conference convening at the intersection of art and social justice.

Since 1974, Creative Time has produced over 350 groundbreaking public art projects that ignite the imagination, explore ideas that shape society, and engage millions of people around the globe. Since its inception, the non-profit organization has been at the forefront of socially engaged public art, seeking to convert the power of artists' ideas into works that inspire and challenge the public. Creative Time projects stimulate dialogue on timely issues, and initiate a dynamic experience between artists, sites, and audiences.

For more information on Creative Time please visit www.creativetime.org. To connect with us via twitter use @CreativeTime and find us on Instagram @CreativeTimeNYC. To share the project on social media use the hashtag #PledgesofAllegiance.