Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and art historian. He is Artistic Director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of The Interview Project, an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is also co-editor of the Cahiers d'Art review. He lives and works in London.
Life and work
Obrist was born in Weinfelden, Switzerland on May 24, 1968. His father worked in the construction industry and his mother was a teacher. He grew up in the Alps near Lake Constance. His interest in art developed at an early age, “first of all, through the graffiti,” via exposure to street art in Switzerland in the 1980s, particularly the work of Harald Naegeli. His interest in museums began when his parents took him to the library of a monastery at the age of 6. Aged 6, Obrist was struck by a car. In his childhood, Obrist was "building museums curated in my bedroom" by decorating his room with postcards.
From 1985 to 1991, Obrist was travelling and visiting various European-based artists and their studios, often sleeping on the train to his next destination to save money. The first artists he visited were Peter Fischli & David Weiss.
Aged 23, when as a student in Politics and Economics in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in 1991, Obrist created an exhibition in the kitchen of his apartment entitled "The Kitchen Show/"World Soup". It featured work by Christian Boltanski and Peter Fischli & David Weiss.Leon Neyfakh (December 16, 2009), The Man Who Made Curating an Art New York Observer.Field, Marcus. "An object lesson in what goes where", The Independent, December 5, 1999.
museum in progress, 1993–2000 Obrist curated projects for the art initiative museum in progress in Vienna. These included a museum in progress exhibition with Alighiero Boetti held on board of Austrian Airlines in 1993 (using images from Boetti's “Airplanes” series, both in every in-flight magazine and as a free jigsaw puzzle, given to passengers);Project webpage of museum in progress on Board, museum in progress, ViennaLou Stoppard (3 March 2020), Everyone's a Curator Now: When everything is “curated,” what does the word even mean? New York Times. Interventions in the daily newspaper Der Standard 1995 with artists like Christian Marclay, Lawrence Weiner; and Travelling Eye in the magazine Profil 1995/1996 with John Baldessari, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Gerhard Richter amongst others.Project webpage of Travelling Eye. museum in progress, Vienna
Obrist has also been a jury member of the art project Safety Curtain, which museum in progress has held at the Vienna State Opera since 1998 with artists including Tauba Auerbach, David Hockney, Joan Jonas, Jeff Koons, Maria Lassnig, Rosemarie Trockel, Cy Twombly and Carrie Mae Weems.Project webpage of Safety Curtain, museum in progress, Vienna
In 1993, Obrist founded the Museum Robert Walser and began to run the "Migrateurs" program at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris where he was a curator for contemporary art.
In 1996, Obrist co-curated Manifesta 1, the first edition of the roving European biennial of contemporary art.
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 2000–2006 In 2003, Obrist curated, as part of the Venice Biennale, "Utopia Station"; an interview with Obrist about the project appears in Sarah Thornton's Seven Days in the Art World.
By 2005, The Guardian reported that Obrist had interviewed to succeed Philip Dodd as the director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.Charlotte Higgins (22 January 2005), Swiss curator tipped as new director of the ICA The Guardian.
Serpentine Galleries, 2006–present In 2006, Serpentine Galleries director Julia Peyton-Jones appointed Obrist as her co-director of exhibitions and programs.Farah Nayeri (13 April 2016), Chief Executive for Serpentine Galleries in London Is Named New York Times Since Peyton-Jones left the organization in 2016, Obrist has worked alongside successive co-directors Yana Peel (2016–2019) and Bettina Korek (since 2019).
In addition to his role at the Serpentine Galleries, Obrist has been the international programs advisor to the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (since 2018)Randy Kennedy (11 February 2013), Russian Art Center Looks to the West for New Curator New York Times. and the artistic adviser to The Shed in New York (since 2018).Robin Pogrebin (6 February 2018), The Shed Isn't Waiting for a Building to Start Programming New York Times.Andy Battaglia (6 March 2018), The Shed's Commissions for 2019 Opening Involve Gerhard Richter, No I.D., Steve McQueen, Trisha Donnelly, Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, Many More ARTnews.
While maintaining official curatorial positions, Obrist was also the co-founder of the Brutally Early Club in 2006,Brutally Early Club a discussion group open to all that met at Starbucks in London, Berlin, New York and Paris at 6:30 a.m. The club was created so that Obrist could fit in conversations with artists before spending the day at his desk. It has since been replaced with the OM3AM Club which meets in the middle of the night at different locations such as 24-hour motorway service stations.
In 2007, Obrist co-curated "Il Tempo del Postino" with Philippe Parreno for the Manchester International Festival. This was also presented at Art Basel in 2009, organised by Fondation Beyeler and Theater Basel.
In 2008, Obrist curated Everstill at the Lorca House in Granada.
In 2013, along with Simon Castets and Luc Saucier, Obrist co-founded the 89plus, an international, multi-platform research project with support from Google, conceived as a mapping of the "digitally native" generation of those born in or after 1989.Rachel Donadio (6 August 2014), Technology Driving Young Art New York Times.Scott Reyburn (29 October 2016), How Important Is Art History in Today's Market? New York Times.
Obrist also acted as non-executive artistic co-director and as a senior advisor to LUMA Arles, which was launched in 2013 by Maja Hoffmann.
In 2014, Obrist curated the Swiss Pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, where he presented Lucius Burckhardt and Cedric Price - A stroll through a fun palace; the building was designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, and the program was developed with artists Liam Gillick, Philippe Parreno, Tino Sehgal and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster.Roslyn Sulcas (5 March 2014), An Architect and a Sociologist to be Honored at Swiss Pavilion in Venice New York Times.Kevin McGarry (6 June 2014), Q. & A.: Hans-Ulrich Obrist on Curating the Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
In 2022, Obrist organised a Jota Mombaça performance staged on San Giacomo in Paludo to kick off the construction of an arts space operated by the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.Alexander Greenberger (25 April 2022), Collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo to Turn Venetian Island into Arts Space ARTnews.
The Interview project Obrist's interest in interviews was first born during his student years when he read two extensive conversations: the first between Pierre Cabanne and Marcel Duchamp; the second between David Sylvester and Francis Bacon. Obrist said that "These books somehow brought me to art...They were like oxygen, and were the first time that the idea of an interview with an artist as a medium became of interest to me. They also sparked my interest in the idea of sustained conversations—of interviews recorded over a period of time, perhaps over the course of many years; the Bacon/Sylvester interviews took place over three long sessions, for example."Hans Ulrich Obrist A brief history of Curating Artbook.com
Over the years, Obrist has recorded nearly 2000 hours of interviews, which he refers to as "an endless conversation". He began publishing these interviews in Artforum in 1996 and eleven of these interviews were released as Interviews Volume 1 in 2003. Volume 2 was published in Summer 2010. In these released interviews, a total of 69 artists, architects, writers, film-makers, scientists, philosophers, musicians and performers share their unique experiences and insights.
Obrist has also published a series of books called "The Conversation Series," which features the longer interviews in his archive. To date, 28 books have been published, each containing a lengthy interview with cultural figures including John Baldessari, Zaha Hadid, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Yoko Ono, Robert Crumb and Rem Koolhaas. A number of Obrist's interviews have also appeared in the Berlin culture magazine 032c, including those with artists Elaine Sturtevant and Richard Hamilton, historian Eric Hobsbawm, and structural engineer Cecil Balmond of Arup.Ulrich-obrist/ Hans Ulrich Obrist at 032c.com
In 2005, Obrist initiated a series of "marathons", a series of public events he conceived in Stuttgart.Greg Allen (22 May 2005), Art of the Undone New York Times. The first in the Serpentine series, the "Interview Marathon" in 2006, involved interviews with leading figures in contemporary culture over 24 hours, conducted by Obrist and architect Rem Koolhaas. This was followed by the "Experiment Marathon", conceived by Obrist and artist Olafur Eliasson in 2007, which included 50 experiments by speakers across both arts and science, including Peter Cook, Neil Turok, Kim Gordon, Simone Forti, Fia Backstrom and Joseph Grigely. There was also the "Manifesto Marathon" in 2008 and the "Poetry Marathon" in 2009, which consisted of poems read aloud by artists and writers including Gilbert & George, Tracey Emin, Nick Laird, Geoffrey Hill, and James Fenton.Orr, Gillian. My Week: Hans Ulrich Obrist. The Independent, October 17, 2009.
The 2014 "Extinction Marathon: Visions of the Future" linked the humanities and the sciences to discussions of environmental and human impact on the world today. It was programmed with artist Gustav Metzger whose research addresses issues of extinction and climate change. Notable participants included artists Etel Adnan, Ed Atkins, Jesse Darling, Gilbert & George, Katja Novitskova, Yoko Ono, Susan Hiller, Marguerite Humeau, Trevor Paglen, Cornelia Parker amongst notable model and actor Lily Cole and founder of The Whole Earth Catalog and co-founder of The Long Now Foundation Stewart Brand.
In his ongoing Instagram-based project, popularly dubbed "Remember to Dream!" after his related 2023 publication, Obrist posts handwritten notes from artists, writers, designers and other creatives in an effort to revive the art of handwriting in the digital age. Of the project, Obrist has said, "It's so much to do with presence. It's about the presence of the person who writes it [the note]."
Curatorial practice Obrist is an advocate and archivist for artists, and has said: "I really do think artists are the most important people on the planet, and if what I do is a utility and helps them, then that makes me happy. I want to be helpful."Roberts, Alison (October 22, 2009), Ulrich-obrist---the-god-of-planet-art.do "Hans Ulrich Obrist - The God of Planet Art", The London Evening Standard. He is known for his lively pace and emphasis on inclusion in all cultural activities.