Luxury Golfer Rirkrit Tiravanija from rich Thailand, aka relational charlatan and aesthetic hypocrite タイの富裕層出身の高級ゴルファー、リクリット・ティラワニ、別名関係性詐欺師にして美学的偽善者

Thai Rirkrit Tiravanija plays Golf and therefore mocks us artists here in Japan.
Recent weeks were mentally disastrous for Japan and also for the art community as economy-developed Thailand still endorses modern slavery. The reality of human trafficking is quite shocking and unbelievable for the year 2025. (1)

A 12-year-old girl brought from Thailand in June was forced to provide sexual services at an illegal private massage parlor in Tokyo. In September, she sought help at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau and was taken into protective custody. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) arrested the Japanese male operator of the business on suspicion of violating the Labor Standards Act.

Human trafficking of Thai people exists since the 1980s and 1990s, involving “forced prostitution” where, upon arriving in Japan, victims had their passports confiscated, were saddled with massive debts, and faced threats like “we’ll kill your parents” if they didn’t work. According to *Letters from Thai Women to Prostitution Society Japan*, a book documenting these realities, more than 20,000 Thais fell victim each year since then.
Many of those women came from impoverished villages in Thailand’s northern and northeastern mountainous and rural areas. Behind it all were not only Thai brokers but also Japanese yakuza deeply involved, it is said.
From talking to clients and the women themselves, it seems that nowadays, many Thai women come to Japan voluntarily for money-related reasons (like repaying debts), and cases of outright confinement are rare. The 12-year-old girl in this year’s incident in Tokyo became a victim of selfish adults’ recklessness.
However, trafficking victims often refrain from reporting due to fear of arrest, making it hard for cases to come to light, so there may be more instances of forced prostitution than the reported numbers suggest.
Thai women working in Japan’s sex entertainment establishments often enter on visa waivers by posing as tourists for about two weeks and repeatedly engage in illegal work.
In the background are brokers who arrange and introduce jobs, operating in both Thailand and Japan. Of course, cracking down on these brokers is essential, but especially for child prostitution, we should simultaneously strengthen enforcement against the clients themselves to eradicate the demand at its root.

I really wonder, if the Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija understands what his Golf-playing suggests.
After all, watching him and his buddy Hans Ulrich Obrist (2), these guys play the relational charlatan and aesthetic hypocrite.

Fin.

Tokyo, 2025/11/28
Mario A

(1)
Thai police get arrest warrant for mother of sexually exploited 12-year-old girl
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20251124_09/

(2)
かわいそうな、時代遅れ批評家・キュレーターのハンス・ウルリッヒ・オブリスト
Fiasco-esque curatorial practice by Hans Ulrich Obrist
https://art-culture.world/reviews/hans-ulrich-obrist/

more @
アート・バーゼル、壮麗さへの回帰 (アーティストたちによって裸にされたアート・バーゼル、さえも*) 2023年度
ART BASEL – The Return to its Grandeur (ART BASEL Stripped Bare by Her Artists, Even*) 2023 version
https://art-culture.world/reviews/art-basel-2023/

more @
ダーム・パトロネス マヤ・ホフマン氏の新建物「LUMAアルル」
Dame Patronesse Maja Hoffmann’s New Building “LUMA Arles”
https://art-culture.world/art-world/dame-patronesse-maja-hoffmann/