Hans-Ulrich Obrist Quotes
-
The non-utility of my kitchen could be transformed into its utility for art. To do a show there would mix art and life, naturally.
-
There is nothing deeper than to work for a year with the same artist.
-
At Performa in New York, there are a lot of commissions, but Manchester Festival is the only festival where everything is fully produced by the festival.
-
Switzerland felt incredibly narrow, growing up. It was good, in a way. There were so many museums. But it was always a no-brainer that I would have to leave, and I'm grateful for that.
-
Our economy's growth functions by inciting us to produce more and more with each passing year. In turn, we require cultural forms to enable us to sort through the glut, and our rituals are once again directed towards the immaterial, towards quality and not quantity.
-
It's quite an obscure notion for a kid, no? To want to be a curator. But even then, I knew that I would do this.
-
One of my favourite exhibitions is called 'Do It,' which I co-curated with the artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier 21 years ago.
-
Everything I do is somehow connected to velocity.
-
My most famous show is the 'Kitchen Show.' More famous than any gallery show or museum show I curated.
-
Exhibitions are kind of ephemeral moments, sometimes magic moments, and when they're gone, they're gone.
-
I have many intense friendships with artists. I don't mean we have intense one-day conversations but ongoing conversations that last in some cases for years.
-
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.
-
I would go from one city to the next, inspired by the monks in the Middle Ages, who would carry knowledge from one monastery to the next monastery.
-
At a certain time, an artist needs a big retrospective. At other times, they need a more focused exhibition. It's a different story each time; it's about establishing a dialogue.
-
Alex Poots has always made a bridge between highly experimental and the mainstream.
-
During my time at high school and university in Kreuzlingen and St. Gallen, I traveled around Europe looking at art, visiting artists, studios, galleries and museums.
-
Exhibitions usually are not collected; they disperse after they take place.
-
I remember going to a monastery library when I was very young and being surrounded by ancient books. I fell in love.
-
Making art is not the matter of a moment, and nor is making an exhibition; curating follows art.
-
I started going to exhibitions in Switzerland when I was 10 or 11. As a schoolboy, I would go every afternoon to see the long, thin figures of Giacometti.
-
From 1991 to 2000, I was totally nomadic. I was travelling 300 days a year and building out my research. These were a bit like my learning and migrating years, so to say.
-
For me, the making of exhibitions has always had to do with dialogue: a concentrated, in-depth, focused dialogue with artists, who keep teaching me that exhibitions should always invent new rules for the game.
-
Many artists have not been able to realise their fondest projects. My role is to help them.
-
To record is a process against forgetting. I do interviews because it's what I've been doing every day for a few hours since I was a kid. I've always talked to artists.