Hans-Ulrich Obrist

Hans-Ulrich Obrist

Curator

Hans Ulrich Obrist is a Swiss curator for contemporary art. He is involved in the "Interview Project",an extensive collection of interviews between colonel and artists, architects, filmmakers, scientists, philosophers and musicians. He has been Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London since 2016. HUO publishes photos of handwritten messages from artists, writers and architects he meets on Instagram.

Project for a Revolution in New York

Alain Robbe-Grillet
Part prophecy and part erotic fantasy, this classic tale of otherworldly depravity features New York itself.

The city is the protagonist. A maze about politics, activism, art. Very related to the Marquis de Sade.

Hans-Ulrich Obrist

Les cigognes sont immortelles

Alain Mabanckou|French edition
Life takes its course in Pointe-Noire, in the Voungou district. The young student Michel, who lives on the property of his family with Maman Pauline and Papa Roger, has the reputation of being a dreamer. But the worries of everyday life will soon be swept away by the wind of history.

Mabanckou is one of the greatest storytellers, famous for his book Black Moses. Les Cigognes Sont Immortelles, which combines the personal and political, shows the impact that history, violence, and civil war has on a family, against the backdrop of colonization and decolonization. I was particularly struck by this recent quote of his: “The civilization of tomorrow is the sum of marginalities.”

Hans-Ulrich Obrist

Of Cities And Women

Etel Adnan
This volume is a nonfiction addition to the almost forgotten canon of published letters. Etel Adnan's letters begin in June 1990, focused on feminism and written for a Paris-based magazine planning a special issue on Arab women. Eventually, her letters become more of a travel journal as she visits London, France, southern Spain, Berlin, Frankfurt, the Greek islands, Beirut and Rome, commenting on women and other matters over a two-year period.

Etel Adnan is one of the greatest artists of our time, one of the wisest I have ever met, and a great inspiration to many people. Her "Of Cities and Women" letter omnibus relates to cities like her place of birth Beirut, London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Rome and many more. Oskar Kokoschka said you can't paint a city, it escapes you. Etel Adnan captured them in her writtings and portrays them as places of understanding and revelation. Reading her is addictive.

Hans-Ulrich Obrist

Invisible Cities

Italo Calvino
Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.

My favourite city!

Hans-Ulrich Obrist

Other profiles

Mitchell Joachim

Mitchell Joachim

Architect
Melissa Unger

Melissa Unger

Creative Director

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