For Rirkrit Tiravanija’s first exhibition in Thailand, he focused on Bangkok as a contemporary Asian metropolis struggling to cope with transport infrastructure and within that context the notion of taxis as global vehicles for public intervention and exchange. A somewhat nomadic artist, Rirkrit positioned three video monitors across the passenger seats, projecting footage of the artist travelling in taxis around the world interspersed with famous movie clips that have featured scenes in taxis. With water bottles and hand towels laid on to welcome travellers, passengers were invited to record their own taxi experience on a video camera inside the Taxi Gallery. The opening reception took place on the pavement in front of Bangkok’s National Museum beside the waiting lane for a public taxi stand. A surreptitious Navin Gallery Bangkok sign was placed below the taxi stand sign where it remained for almost a year, with the Taxi Gallery occasionally parking up there among the other taxicabs.

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