Obrist-isms
Princeton, USA: Princeton University Press, 2025
160 pp., 4.25 x 5.25”, hardcover
Edition size unknown
Swiss-born, London-based Hans Ulrich Obrist is the closest the art community has to a household-name curator. He is staggeringly prolific: in the thirty years since the publication of his influential book Do It [1996], he has authored new titles every single year, often several per annum. He frequently tops lists of the most influential/important/powerful people in the art world.
Obrist has published a series of books called "The Conversation Series," which feature long-form interviews with Marina Abramovic, John Baldessari, Robert Crumb, Tacita Dean, Gilbert & George, Zaha Hadid, Jeff Koons, Enzo Mari, Gustav Metzger, Yoko Ono, Nancy Spero, Rosemarie Trockle, and many others.
Obrist-isms editor Larry Walsh describes him as “Obsessive. Expansive. Connective. Reactive” and a “non-stop thinker who immerses himself in the minds of the artists he works with”.
Collecting more than 250 quotes and excerpts from writings and interviews, Walsh has arranged the contents under categories such as "Early Years", "Curating and Exhibitions", "Artists and Conversations", "Archiving, Collecting and Unrealized Projects", "On Sleep and Time", “Art and the Environment,” and "Technology and Future of Art”.
Obrist speaks about the importance of the artist ("Art is the highest form of hope”, "If there was ever a time that the world needed artists, it is now. We need their radical ideas, visions, and perspectives in society.”), the importance of the interview (“Conversations are a way of archiving or preserving the past”), about his approach to curating (“A large part of my job is to look and look and look, but also to listen”, "Many great exhibitions have been curated by artists themselves") and about his interest in unrealized works ("'There are many amazing unrealised projects out there: forgotten projects, misunderstood projects, lost projects, desk-drawer projects, poetic-utopian dream projects, unrealizable projects, partially realized projects, censored projects and so on.”
Occasionally, some of the entries seem redundant, such as "The motor, the engine, is curiosity. Curating is connected to curiosity” and “I don’t really have a master plan. I somehow go from one thing to the next, driven by curiosity. Curiosity if one of my engines” and others - out of context - come across as somewhat trite (“We must acknowledge and encourage difference). But for the most part, the small volume serves as a good introduction to celebrated curator’s process.
Other quotes include:
"I believe in generosity as a medium.”
"What is happening outside the museum is just as important as what's happening inside. Make the walls porous. Think beyond exhibitions. Foster alliances."
“If you want to understand the forces which are active in art, I think one needs to also read science, one needs to read literature, one needs to read about music and architecture, all of these different fields. Just reading about art is not enough”.
The title also features an introduction by Walsh, a brief chronology of Obrist's life and career and a list of sources for the various quotes.
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