Life in Progress
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- 14,99 €
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- 14,99 €
Publisher Description
World-renowned curator Hans Ulrich Obrist for the first time grants a private view of his life, and his journey towards art and artists
When Hans Ulrich was six years old, he was knocked down by a speeding car as he was crossing the street. Hospitalized for weeks, a sense of urgency was instilled in him. Enraptured by the healing powers of art from this young age, he began to travel across Europe on night trains, visiting artists’ studios.
In a book that is part unputdownable coming-of-age story, part tour de force of the contemporary art world, part user’s manual on how to live a life driven by curiosity, conversation, and not least hope, Obrist takes us through the formative experiences that made him. From his first exhibition in his Zurich kitchen to penning 250 postcards while trapped by an avalanche in Val Bregaglia, Life in Progress is an enchanting ode to the healing properties that engaging with art and the people around us boundlessly affords.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This invigorating memoir from Swiss curator and art critic Obrist (Remember to Dream!) traces his path from ambitious youth to artistic director of London's Serpentine Gallery, with cameos from numerous contemporary artists along the way. After nearly dying in a car accident at age six, Obrist spent weeks in the hospital that "instilled a sense of urgency in me." In his teens and 20s, he requested studio visits with nearly any artist he admired, including Swiss giants Peter Fischli and David Weiss, as well as H.R. Giger. The account evolves from a handbook for aspiring art-world practitioners to a meditation on the collaborative relationship between artist and curator when it covers Obrist's early curatorial experiences; French installation artist Annette Messager memorably advised Obrist to sleep with a stuffed bird beneath a mosquito net as part of his first solo exhibition. Though details of Obrist's personal life are scarce, he writes persuasively of his passion for connecting to the world through art and his desire to enable others to do the same. (After a London cab driver told him that museums aren't "for the likes of us," he planned a series of street exhibitions.) Readers will be inspired.
