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The Conversation #13
Hans Ulrich Obrist & Olafur Eliasson: The Conversation Series: Vol. 13
Hans Ulrich Obrist and Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson have known each other for many years, and have worked together intimately--on exhibitions, book projects, performances and more. Their legendary conversations, gathered here, are revealing, challenging, philosophical--and essential to both oeuvres.
- GenresArt
128 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2008
1 person is currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Hans Ulrich Obrist
445 books258 followersHans 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 26, 2022
Good book that covers Eliasson's thoughts on the role of the museum, audience participation, nature and weather, and his past and yet-to-be projects. He's an idealist whose head isn't stuck in the clouds. He's socially engaged, constantly questioning perspectives and narratives, and collaborating across disciplines (e.g. architecture, math, art, retail).
Favorite quotes:
"I believe the audience has much more power than it's actually allowed to exert. Too often, museums pacify, rather than activate, audiences."
"What is nature, anyway? And who really cares about this constant search for the boundary between culture and nature? If there is a nature, I arrive at it through the people who are there and their idea about where they are. If there aren't any people, so-called nature doesn't interest me."
"To return to the idea of anti-gravity, you can take a plane and let it drop from one altitude to another, causing a free fall, and for a short time you have a non-gravity situation inside the plane. For a show, I once proposed taking people on a flight like this to study the phenomenon, but it was never realized."
"The idea that what I do makes a difference, matters, and is important: this is what used to be called utopian."
"When I talk about engagement, I often think of it as a means of absorbing your surroundings."
"Their approach to it remains highly conservative: they're trying to institutionalize the object-and not just the object's physical qualities, but the experience of it. In fact, museums tend to commodify, or at least objectify, the experience of the object. And as this is played out, they narrow down the way the public sees things. To be frank, I think they've become producers of "seeing-machines"; they not only produce the art, but they dictate the way art is to be seen thanks to their event-driven and conservative perspectives on the object."
"We are currently, as we speak, tripping. It's all one ongoing trip, anxiety and ecstatic ideas blending in an all-consuming concoction. Look how unbelievably scary that whole glacial landscape in front of us appears. Is that not the wildest thing?! It makes 'Lord Rings' of the look like a reality show."
"I think what even quite isolated places like Black Mountain College succeeded in was actually creating a relationship with the time in which they took place."
"It's important to understand that a good gallery can help an artist make better art ... Because a very good dealer doesn't just provide the artist with resistance or friction, but gives him a frame of reference that can be productive."
Favorite quotes:
"I believe the audience has much more power than it's actually allowed to exert. Too often, museums pacify, rather than activate, audiences."
"What is nature, anyway? And who really cares about this constant search for the boundary between culture and nature? If there is a nature, I arrive at it through the people who are there and their idea about where they are. If there aren't any people, so-called nature doesn't interest me."
"To return to the idea of anti-gravity, you can take a plane and let it drop from one altitude to another, causing a free fall, and for a short time you have a non-gravity situation inside the plane. For a show, I once proposed taking people on a flight like this to study the phenomenon, but it was never realized."
"The idea that what I do makes a difference, matters, and is important: this is what used to be called utopian."
"When I talk about engagement, I often think of it as a means of absorbing your surroundings."
"Their approach to it remains highly conservative: they're trying to institutionalize the object-and not just the object's physical qualities, but the experience of it. In fact, museums tend to commodify, or at least objectify, the experience of the object. And as this is played out, they narrow down the way the public sees things. To be frank, I think they've become producers of "seeing-machines"; they not only produce the art, but they dictate the way art is to be seen thanks to their event-driven and conservative perspectives on the object."
"We are currently, as we speak, tripping. It's all one ongoing trip, anxiety and ecstatic ideas blending in an all-consuming concoction. Look how unbelievably scary that whole glacial landscape in front of us appears. Is that not the wildest thing?! It makes 'Lord Rings' of the look like a reality show."
"I think what even quite isolated places like Black Mountain College succeeded in was actually creating a relationship with the time in which they took place."
"It's important to understand that a good gallery can help an artist make better art ... Because a very good dealer doesn't just provide the artist with resistance or friction, but gives him a frame of reference that can be productive."
April 4, 2018
I'm biased by being a huge Olafur Eliasson fan, but overall I found Hans Ulrich Obrist to have rather dull questions. I'd love to hear the unedited tapes.
July 9, 2008
I find artists' discussion of their creative process fall into one of two categories: (1) so astute on the human condition / role of art that it induces goose pimples and causes me to encounter / hallucinate uncanny reminders of their brilliance throughout the day / week / months following my experience with their writing or (2) jargon laden mumbo-jumbo that pains my brain to untangle (and rarely proves worth the effort when possible).
These conversations run the gambit.
While I appreciated Eliasson's various considerations of the inherent momentum and uncertainty in creativity and collaboration -- "it's much more about constantly negotiating or challenging the situation you're in at the moment than it is about laying out a trajectory you subsequently try to follow...it's not about formalization; it's about action, individuality and believing in things." -- I found much of the artspeak here to be convoluted and bogged down by concepts that try to justify / explain the art, rather than simply explore Eliasson's journey in creating it. On top of that, as soon as I was engaged by the topic of discussion (and excited by where I anticipated the conversation was going), Hans Ulrich Obrist would drop that subject and veer off into some tangential line of questioning, that addressed a more concrete / objective / boring idea like color theory (I can just read about that on Wikipedia).
Was it worth the read? I guess. Is Eliasson's well read and well intentioned? Although he tends toward self-important, long-winded ramblings, his goals and quest for experimentation seem commendable (I enjoy his obsession with motion). Do his over-intellectual justifications (his incessant "dematerializing," "recontextualizing," and "reevaluating") kind of alienate the reader? Yes. Should you forgo the book and just take your time, alone, in his 360° room for all colors? I'd say so. Does the nature / politics / process of art making remain a mystery? Most certainly.
These conversations run the gambit.
While I appreciated Eliasson's various considerations of the inherent momentum and uncertainty in creativity and collaboration -- "it's much more about constantly negotiating or challenging the situation you're in at the moment than it is about laying out a trajectory you subsequently try to follow...it's not about formalization; it's about action, individuality and believing in things." -- I found much of the artspeak here to be convoluted and bogged down by concepts that try to justify / explain the art, rather than simply explore Eliasson's journey in creating it. On top of that, as soon as I was engaged by the topic of discussion (and excited by where I anticipated the conversation was going), Hans Ulrich Obrist would drop that subject and veer off into some tangential line of questioning, that addressed a more concrete / objective / boring idea like color theory (I can just read about that on Wikipedia).
Was it worth the read? I guess. Is Eliasson's well read and well intentioned? Although he tends toward self-important, long-winded ramblings, his goals and quest for experimentation seem commendable (I enjoy his obsession with motion). Do his over-intellectual justifications (his incessant "dematerializing," "recontextualizing," and "reevaluating") kind of alienate the reader? Yes. Should you forgo the book and just take your time, alone, in his 360° room for all colors? I'd say so. Does the nature / politics / process of art making remain a mystery? Most certainly.
August 7, 2008
In stark contrast to the R.Crumb interview, Eliasson is the total opposite kind of artist. He's rather self-absorbed, and revels in the boring intellectual "artspeak" that make many interviews like these a chore. This is actually a series of about 8 interviews, which is interesting as it allows the reader to see how Obrist and Eliasson form a repoire of artist/interviewer over the course of years.
For me as an artist, I rather enjoy reading about what Eliasson finds inspiring and some of the more obtuse ideas he has floating around that Icelandic noggin of his. I would not recommend this for anyone who has a distaste for "smartier-than-thou" artist interviews.
For me as an artist, I rather enjoy reading about what Eliasson finds inspiring and some of the more obtuse ideas he has floating around that Icelandic noggin of his. I would not recommend this for anyone who has a distaste for "smartier-than-thou" artist interviews.
June 13, 2012
this was very inspiring to read. it really game me a new perspective about museums, space, temporal thinking and what is possible as an artist. i saw one of his exhibitions in Berlin and got this book to read from the museum gift shop and i'm so glad i did. i definitely want to see what is coming next from this visionary artist.
Currently reading
January 22, 2009Ok, so I saw his exhibit in Dallas and it flipped my lid. My uncle gave this to me for the Christmas and I'm trying to extract as many chunks of raw genius as I can.
March 14, 2011
Fascinating and a total shift of perspective on the metaphysics of creativity.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews