Hans-Ulrich Obrist

Hans-Ulrich Obrist – Life, Career, and Influence

Hans-Ulrich Obrist is a Swiss-born art curator, critic, and historian whose daring curatorial methods, boundless curiosity, and commitment to dialogue have reshaped how we think about exhibitions, interviews, and contemporary art. Explore his life, philosophy, key projects, and enduring legacy.

Introduction

Hans-Ulrich Obrist is among the most dynamic figures of contemporary art today—simultaneously curator, critic, interviewer, cultural connector, and curator-philosopher. Born in Switzerland in 1968, Obrist’s restless intellectual energy and almost mythical work ethic have made him a central interlocutor between artists, institutions, and audiences around the world. As artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London and originator of what he calls “endless conversations” with creators, he has challenged traditional boundaries of the curator’s role, turning it into something expansive, dialogic, and relational.

Obrist’s influence extends far beyond individual exhibitions: he has helped define how we conceive of curatorship in the 21st century, insisting that art is not only to be displayed but to be engaged, interrogated, and networked. His methods—marathons, open-ended interviews, exhibitions in unexpected spaces—continue to inspire curators, critics, and artists globally.

Early Life and Family

Hans-Ulrich Obrist was born on May 24, 1968, in Weinfelden, in the Swiss canton of Thurgau.

One early turning point came following a serious automobile accident in his youth that left him hospitalized. Some biographical accounts suggest this confrontation with fragility, and his mother’s care, contributed to an early awareness of time, mortality, and the urgency of life.

Through his teenage years, Obrist was already self-driven: he scoured art magazines, collected telephone numbers of artists, and used payphones to cold-call them to arrange visits.

Youth and Education

Obrist studied politics and economics in St. Gallen, Switzerland, at the University of St. Gallen.

While still a student, in 1991, he organized his first exhibition, titled World Soup / The Kitchen Show, in the kitchen of his apartment in St. Gallen.

During these early years, he also encountered pioneering artists such as Fischli & Weiss, who became mentors of a kind—and models of the porous boundary between life, art, and experiment.

Career and Achievements

Museum in Progress & Early Projects

In 1993, Obrist co-founded museum in progress, a Vienna-based project that embedded art into unexpected contexts: airplanes, newspapers, magazines, and public media appear as exhibition vehicles. Der Standard and curated Travelling Eye in Profil magazine, collaborating with artists such as Nan Goldin, Lawrence Weiner, John Baldessari, and Gerhard Richter.

Meanwhile, he co-founded the Museum Robert Walser (1992–1993) and initiated the Migrateurs program at Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, using alternative platforms to commission and show contemporary works.

From 1996, Obrist served as a curator at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (MAMVP), contributing to the Manifesta 1 biennial, and curating significant international exhibitions until 2005.

Serpentine Galleries & Institutional Leadership

In 2006, Obrist was appointed co-director of exhibitions and programmes at the Serpentine Galleries in London, stepping into one of the most visible roles in global contemporary art.

Beyond London, he has served as an international programs advisor to institutions like Garage Museum in Moscow and The Shed in New York.

The Interview Project & Marathons

One of Obrist’s signature contributions is The Interview Project—a long-term archive of artist interviews, conversations with architects, philosophers, scientists, writers, and more. Artforum and in book form, generating thousands of hours of recorded conversation.

He conceived Interview Marathons, Experiment Marathons, Manifesto Marathons, and Poetry Marathons—continuous sessions spanning 24 hours or more where thinkers, artists, poets, scientists gather to speak, respond, and collaborate.

He has also edited and published a Conversation Series, curating long-form dialogues with figures such as Zaha Hadid, Yoko Ono, Rem Koolhaas, Robert Crumb, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, and many more.

Publications & Writings

Obrist is not only a curator but a prolific editor and author. Some notable works include:

• A Brief History of Curating (2008), a landmark volume that traces curatorship as a cultural practice.

• Numerous volumes in the Conversation Series exploring the thoughts and practices of art-world luminaries.

• orial work on monographs of artists like Maria Lassnig, Damien Hirst, and more.

• Une Vie in Progress (recent memoir), exploring his life and curatorial philosophy.

Obrist has lectured widely at universities, art schools, architecture programs, and cultural institutions around the world.

Historical Milestones & Context

Obrist’s rise occurred in the late 20th and early 21st centuries—a moment when the role of the curator transformed from behind-the-scenes caretaker to visible mediator. The explosion of contemporary art scenes globally, the decentralization of art centers, and the growth of biennials and global art fairs created a new ecosystem in which a curator had to be nimble, global, interdisciplinary, and media-savvy.

Within this milieu, Obrist’s practices were both evidence and catalyst of changing curatorial norms. His fluid boundary-crossing—between disciplines, between media, between public and private spaces—mirrored contemporaneous developments in art, where the demarcations between genres, authorship, and medium were dissolving. His experiments with interviews and marathons reflect broader shifts toward participatory art practices, discursive public programming, and expanded institutional imaginaries.

Moreover, being Swiss-born yet cosmopolitan—working in London, Paris, Moscow, New York—Obrist embodies a postnational, networked cultural agent. His career tracks changes in how art is circulated globally, curated collaboratively, and discussed publicly.

Legacy and Influence

Obrist’s legacy is already substantial—and likely to deepen with time.

1. Redefining Curatorship
   He helped redefine the curator not merely as an organizer of shows, but as a protagonist in cultural discourse—a connector, narrator, interlocutor, and provocateur. Many younger curators cite him as inspiration for experimental models of curatorial practice.

2. Dialogue as Method
   By emphasizing interviews, conversations, marathons, Obrist established dialogue as a curatorial methodology. His “endless conversation” approach suggests exhibitions are not endpoints but nodes in ongoing relationships.

3. Institutional Innovation
   Under his leadership, the Serpentine Galleries has become a laboratory for architectural innovation (Pavilion commissions), public programming, and boundary-pushing commissions. He has blurred the lines between institutional stability and experimental agility.

4. Publishing & Archive
   His prolific editing and interviewing create a vast archive—an oral history of contemporary culture. The Conversation Series and Interview Project remain reference points for researchers, artists, and institutions.

5. Global Reach
   Obrist’s model is a global one. His curatorial reach spans continents; his projects occur in remote settings; he seeks cross-cultural encounters, making him a key agent in connecting regions and voices outside traditional art centers.

6. Time, Urgency & Work Culture
   His commitment to working intensively, maximizing every moment, adopting unconventional sleep cycles (“Da Vinci rhythm”), reflect a curatorial ethos grounded in urgency and intensity. This has prompted admiration and critique alike about productivity culture in the arts.

Personality and Talents

Obrist is often described as possessing boundless curiosity, an insatiable appetite for encounters, and an almost compulsive drive to document, converse, and connect. His schedule is famously dense—visits, flights, exhibitions, calls, studio visits, writing, editing.

He is known to keep color-coded diaries, to prefer continuous dialogue over static display, and to treat space and time as material. His style is energetic, conversational, often self-effacing despite his prominence.

Obrist often frames himself as a “junction-maker,” someone who catalyzes meetings between minds, disciplines, and ideas.

He also regards failure, incompleteness, and the provisional as generative: exhibitions that evolve, change, or decay are part of his aesthetic.

Famous Quotes of Hans-Ulrich Obrist

While Obrist is more an interlocutor than a quotable aphorist, the following statements capture his sensibility and approach:

“Everything I do is somehow connected to velocity.”

“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.”

“There is this idea that we can be a great expert in a specific field, but then there is so much we don't know outside that field … in art, I always felt it's important to find out what's happening outside the field of art—what's happening in science, music, literature, and architecture.”

“My profession is to bring artworks together, to bring people together.”

“The interview is like a magic tool: it can expand into unexpected territories.” (paraphrase drawn from his many reflections)

These reflect recurring themes: velocity, connection, interdisciplinarity, the utility of curatorship.

Lessons from Hans-Ulrich Obrist

From Obrist’s life and practice, several lessons emerge that resonate beyond the art world:

1. Start small, think expansively
   His first exhibition in a kitchen reminds us that innovation often begins in modest settings.

2. Practice curiosity relentlessly
   Obrist’s habit of traveling, interviewing, reading across disciplines offers a model of intellectual openness.

3. Dialogue is generative
   His method suggests art is activated not only when shown but when discussed, debated, and embedded in networks.

4. Embrace interdisciplinarity
   He consistently crosses boundaries—art, science, literature, architecture—teaching us that rich ideas often emerge at intersections.

5. Time as resource and urgency
   His life underscores how the awareness of temporality (both personally and historically) can sharpen purpose.

6. Failure, incompleteness, iteration
   Many of his projects are not “finished”—they evolve or mutate. That openness to process is itself a creative stance.

7. Make space for others
   His interventions and marathons often serve others: providing platforms, exposure, encounter. Curatorship as generosity.

Conclusion

Hans-Ulrich Obrist is not just a curator or a critic—he is a cultural catalyst. Through exhibitions, conversations, experiments, and archive, he has reshaped how we think about art, institutions, and connection. His life challenges the complacency of disciplinary silos and invites us into a more porous, generous, and relational approach to creativity.

For those interested in experiencing his ideas firsthand: explore A Brief History of Curating or his Conversation Series, attend Serpentine programming, or listen to his published interviews—each a doorway into the networks Obrist seeks to activate.