Think Like Clouds

by Hans Ulrich Obrist

"Think Like Clouds "collects for the first time the drawings, notes and diagrams of curator, writer and Serpentine Gallery co-director Hans Ulrich Obrist. For the past 22 years, Obrist has curated exhibitions around the world and has interviewed major and minor personalities in nearly every field of endeavor; from architect Rem Koolhaas to painter Gerhard Richter; from astronomer Dimitar Sasselov to journalist and activist Studs Turkel. Obrist draws obsessively during his work in order to help him remember and expand the conversation at hand. But these drawings are more than mere memory aids. Beautiful and enigmatic, they reveal, upon closer scrutiny, constellations of names, ideas, dates, quotes and loose bits of information entangled in wavering lines and undulating scribbles. Each drawing is a conceptual portrait of a conversation or an event. Taken as a whole, they map in visual form the intellectual and historical terrain of one of the most active and curious minds in contemporary art today. "Think Like Clouds "includes an introduction by scholar and archivist Michael Diers and an interview with Obrist conducted by artist Paul Chan.

Genres: Art

278 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Hans Ulrich Obrist is co-director of the Serpentine Gallery in London. Prior to this, he was Curator of the Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris from 2000 to 2006, as well as curator of Museum in progress, Vienna, from 1993 to 2000. Obrist has co-curated over 250 exhibitions since his first exhibition, the Kitchen show (World Soup) in 1991: including 1st Berlin Biennale, 1998; Utopia Station, 2003; 1st & 2nd Moscow Biennale, 2005 and 2007; Lyon Biennale, 2007; and Indian Highway, 2008-2011.
Obrist is the editor of a series of conversation books published by Walther Koenig. He has also edited the writings of Gerhard Richter, Gilbert & George and Louise Bourgeois. He has contributed to over 200 book projects, his recent publications include A Brief History of Curating, dontstopdontstopdontstopdontstop, The future will be…with M/M (Paris), Interview with Hans-Peter Feldmann, and Ai Wei Wei Speaks, along with two volumes of his selected interviews (Interviews: Vol. 1 & 2). The Marathon series of public events was conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist in Stuttgart in 2005. The first in the Serpentine series, the Interview Marathon in 2006, involved interviews with leading figures in contemporary culture over 24 hours, conducted by Obrist and architect Rem Koolhaas. This was followed by the Experiment Marathon, conceived by Obrist and artist Olafur Eliasson in 2007, the Manifesto Marathon in 2008, the Poetry Marathon in 2009, Map Marathon in 2010, and the Garden Marathon in 2011.
In 2009, Obrist was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). In March 2011, he was awarded the Bard College Award for Curatorial Excellence.