New exhibition features unique approach

Art doesn’t have to be just looking at paintings or listening to music — it can involve Ping-pong paddles, too.

Tomorrow is the Question, the newest exhibit at the Remai Modern, is fairly simple in its design when compared to some of the other installations that have come through the Connect Gallery. The installation consists of five pingpong tables with the name of the exhibition written on each one, and visitors are encourages to play games of table tennis on them.

“It’s a very simple one, but it’s a strong and powerful project that allows us to invite people to play,” directors of programs and chief curator Sandra Guimarães said.

Guimarães said Rirkrit Tiravanija, the artist responsible for Tomorrow is the Question, has made a name for himself in his career by challenging and questioning what can be considered an “art object.”

The piece is also a “reactivation” of a project called Ping-pong Society by Július Koller, a Slovakian artist who died in 2007. Koller was known to bring everyday objects into his artwork.

Guimarães said the hope from those at the Remai Modern was that the exhibit would allow visitors to become a part of their own artistic experience, and that they would leave the gallery questioning what art is.

It fits well into one of the missions of the Remai Modern, which is “to be a vibrant, imaginative and prescient museum committed to affirming the powerful role that art and artists play in questioning, interpreting, and defining the modern era,” according to the press release for Tomorrow is the Question.

Besides giving the public the unique opportunity to play games of Ping-pong in one of the newest and most renowned modern art galleries in Western Canada, Guimarães said they hope this kind of hands-on installation will help break the stigma of art being only for society’s elites.

“What we want, really, is ... instead of telling people what is art, making them have different kinds of experiences through art,” she said.

The installation will run in Remai Modern’s Connect Gallery until March 24.

KAYLE NEIS Tomorrow is the Question, the newest exhibit at the Remai Modern, is fairly simple in its design when compared to some of the other installations that have come through the Connect Gallery. It features five Ping-pong tables, “creating an unexpected museum experience where people become part of the art.”