Rirkrit Tiravanija and the painter Franz Ackermann drove in this car from Berlin to the Lyon Biennale, where it was exhibited together with a video documenting the journey. Rirkrit Tiravanija, „Untitled 1995 (Bon voyage Monsieur Ackermann)“, 1995. Photograph: Stefan Altenburger

Marie-France Rafael, what is an art display?

One example is the spiral sculpture “Spiral Jetty,” erected by Robert Smithson in 1970 in the Great Salt Lake, Utah. Or the old Opel Commodore GS, built in 1969, which Rirkrit Tiravanija brought to the museum. Such displays, which artists develop for exhibition spaces, are not simple “visual fields” like shop windows, computer monitors or display panels. Rather, they bring into view both what is shown and the manner of showing. In the exhibition context, this creates an artistic situation that adds a further dimension to common aesthetic experience — a reflection on what is sensually perceived, on aesthetic experience itself.