Renowned Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija has unveiled a monumental and immersive dining installation for Art Basel Paris 2026, combining contemporary art, architecture, and communal cuisine inside two boat-shaped structures. Created in collaboration with nomadic culinary platform We Are Ona and Michelin-starred chef Dalad Kambhu, the project anchors "Dalad’s"—a temporary, highly anticipated restaurant pop-up located in a secret venue near the iconic Place de l’Étoile. Running from October 18 to 25, 2026, the installation brings traditional Thai cooking methods and informal waterfront food culture directly into the heart of the French capital, transforming the universal act of sharing a meal into a collective artistic experience.
The temporary restaurant accommodates up to 100 guests per seating, replacing conventional dining arrangements with two elongated stainless steel structures. These modular tables serve a dual purpose, functioning simultaneously as sleek architectural sculptures, working kitchens, and communal seating arrangements. Integrated steam pots embedded directly into the metallic tables allow food to be prepared and served in real time right in front of the guests. By embedding the culinary workspace into the center of the dining furniture, the design completely dissolves the traditional boundary that separates the hidden restaurant kitchen from the dining room, placing social interaction and active participation at the core of the spatial experience.
Stainless Steel Boats Redefine Communal Dining
For Rirkrit Tiravanija, the concept behind the boat-shaped tables draws deeply from Thailand’s longstanding, intimate relationship with its waterways and the vibrant, informal food culture that thrives along them. Reflecting on the inspiration behind the installation, the artist recalls running down to the piers in Bangkok during his youth to buy boat noodle soup from local vendors who prepared and sold their dishes directly from the water. These formative memories directly informed his decision to merge the kitchen and the dining table into a single, unified structure. In doing so, the installation references an everyday Thai tradition in which boats operate just as much as social spaces of cultural and economic exchange as they do simple means of transportation. Explaining the conceptual weight of the design to designboom, Tiravanija notes that the form itself functions simultaneously as a vehicle and a platform.
The physical execution reinterprets this waterborne heritage through polished stainless steel, translating the recognizable silhouette of a traditional Thai fishing boat into a cutting-edge contemporary setting for collective dining. Luca Pronzato, founder of We Are Ona, explains that the design was also inspired by the sustainable practice found in coastal regions of giving old fishing boats a second life as floating eateries. Rather than constructing a traditional interior design scheme characterized by isolated tables and a segregated back-of-house kitchen, the boats become the structural and philosophical backbone of the entire installation. According to Pronzato, the integration of steam pods directly into the long communal tables brings the artistry of cooking right to the guests, completely redefining how people interact within a pop-up restaurant environment.
Kambhu Explores Thai Cuisine Beyond Its Geographical Roots
At the heart of the culinary program is Thai-American chef Dalad Kambhu, whose cooking philosophy bridges traditional Thai flavors and complex techniques with seasonal, locally sourced ingredients available in Europe. Having grown up in Bangkok before honing her culinary identity across international cities, Kambhu ultimately opened Kin Dee in Berlin in 2017. Her distinct, refined interpretation of Thai cuisine earned the establishment a coveted Michelin star in 2019. For the debut of Dalad’s in Paris, Kambhu continues her ongoing artistic and culinary exploration into the relationships between food, cultural memory, and physical place, curating a menu that is executed live from within the stainless steel installation. The pop-up offers visitors a carefully paced four-course lunch and an eight-course dinner, bringing diners together around the shared rhythm of preparing, smelling, and tasting each dish.
The collaboration is deeply rooted in a longstanding friendship between Kambhu and Tiravanija, whose shared creative investigations into cooking frequently extend far beyond the confines of a standard restaurant kitchen. Their ongoing dialogues often examine the complexities of preparing authentic Thai cuisine in foreign geographies where traditional ingredients are scarce, raising profound questions about cultural identity, adaptation, and authenticity. Elaborating on this theme, Tiravanija explains that the challenge lies in discovering an authenticity that is inherently personal—one that originates from within oneself while operating in an unfamiliar place. This philosophy permeates every detail of the Paris experience, where subtle references to Thai culture, personal histories, and shared memories inform everything from the recipes and tableware to the overall spatial arrangement.
We Are Ona Turns the Act of Dining into a Collective Artwork
Founded by Luca Pronzato in 2019, We Are Ona has built an international reputation for curating temporary culinary experiences that bridge high gastronomy with contemporary art, architecture, and industrial design. Over the years, the platform has collaborated with a diverse roster of creative visionaries, including Carsten Höller, Cristina Celestino, and Sabine Marcelis. The installation for Dalad’s continues this trajectory while engaging directly with Tiravanija’s broader artistic practice, which has famously challenged conventional museum and gallery exhibition formats for decades by utilizing everyday activities like cooking, eating, and gathering as primary mediums.
For Pronzato, artworks should not merely function as passive objects meant to be observed from a distance; instead, they must be active experiences that are fully lived and inhabited. Within the Paris pop-up, the stainless steel boat tables provide the physical framework, but the organic interactions, conversations, and shared moments between the chefs and the diners are what truly complete the artwork. This dynamic relationship between active participation and aesthetic experience is central to Tiravanija’s body of work, where the traditional boundaries separating the artist, the audience, and the artwork dissolve entirely.
Rather than presenting the boat structures as untouchable sculptures, the project invites visitors to physically inhabit and activate them, ensuring that the installation evolves dynamically with every single gathering. Through this immersive fusion of architecture, culinary art, and communal hospitality, the project reaffirms Tiravanija’s guiding artistic sentiment that sharing a thoughtful, beautiful meal with friends and strangers alike remains a powerful and enduring work of art.
