Green Go Home (Rirkrit Tiravanija & Tomas Vu)

The title references the complex genesis of the term “gringo”. Used in Latin America to describe a Western foreigner, “gringo” is often attributed to the phrase “Green go home!”: as legend has it, the exclamation referred to the American troops during the Mexican-American War whose uniforms allegedly included green coats. Therefore, the title of the project may likewise be regarded as a provocation in connection with the colonialist attitude of the USA towards its southern neighbours. Based on this reference, Green Go Home constantly redevelops its own form and enters into a dynamic dialogue with current protests and civil unrest.
In the works There is no sun without a song, Do we dream under the same sky (The New York Times, Sunday, November 18, 2018) and Tomorrow is another day (The New York Times, Sunday, September 30, 2018), the artists assemble excerpts from the North American press combined with screen-printed image and text elements: figures from the protest and pop culture – such as Angela Davis, Pablo Picasso and Johnny Cash – thus enter into a polyphonic dialogue with large-scale, slogan-like fragments of language. The result is an image-text network that interweaves a multitude of interpretations, readings and misunderstandings and, as a result, gives rise to representations of resistance.