London Dialogues: Serpentine Gallery 24-Hour Interview Marathon

by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Rem Koolhas (Editor)

This volume inaugurates a new series of publications edited by three leading authors on the world's architectural and artistic scene: H.U.Obrist, Rem Koolhaas and Stefano Boeri. This series of dialogues conducted by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Rem Koolhaas is dedicated to the most topical subjects on the international scene. Protagonists of the British architectural, political, and artistic scene, including Brian Eno, Zaha Hadid, Doris Lessing, Damien Hirst, and Gilbert and George, amongst others, have been invited to speak about the near future.

377 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 2010

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.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this collection of Dialogues conducted at the Serpentine Gallery (2006) at the Venice architectural Biennale 2014 and I must say I am surprised it wasn't published earlier (or maybe I just missed an earlier publication!). As a former Londoner (but as they say once a Londoner always a Londoner!) I found it riveting and inspiring as well as a great snapshot of London as it was in my heyday. You couldn't put together a better description of London architecturally and artistically - a great ensemble of artists and sociologists, be they painters writers architects, film makers, criminologists, sociologists contributed to an incredible 24-hour interview marathon. I loved this work in that the medium is spoken but presented to us in the written form, it makes individual's thoughts somewhat more accessible, their future projects for London, their dreams, optimism or pessimism about the city presented in a fresh lively dialogue. Rem and Hans do a great job even with the most difficult interviewees at the most difficult times ( see Damien Hirst at 4.50 am) and manage to draw out the best from their interviewees. Some quotations of London I loved \ Rem Koolhaas: I've been here [London] long enough to change my mind or to have totally different impressions of the same phenomenon. David Adjaye: I'm fascinated by the way London has always regenerated itself. Zaha Hadid: London is still an unrealised project for me, and I still feel it is an exciting city because it is so unpredictable. Susan Hiller(an American): one can never really become English but you can become a Londoner. Scott Lash: London's got a lot of chaos right inside; we haven't got the walls, it's a concoction of villages and in that sense there is a sort of permanent state of exception. Square pusher (Tom Jenkins): London isn't an environment in which I grew up so I always feel like a tourist. Gilbert and George: we used to say if a spaceship was coming down on Planet Earth and telephoned and said 'we've just got five minutes to film Planet Earth to take a report back to our people where should we do it?' We would say : ' Brick Lane, Liverpool Street'. That's typical Planet Earth. [...] London is much more actual. Even the look, the gaze of people, the eye contact is totally different from other parts of the world we believe. Doris Lessing: people of my age looking at what London's like now, we can't believe it, the sheer fullness of everything; everything is here. / Of course it is impossible to make a synthetic image of the city as Hans says in the post face, but these dialogues at least capture the atmosphere in 2006, of great ebullience and entrepreneurialism pre-2008 economic crisis, which I think altered the discourse to some extent for architects and other players alike. Clearly, it is somewhat outdated as it relates to 8 years ago but it's still a great testimony. The discussions are not just about London but combine theoretical with practical issues, with discussion on concepts of time space diversity utopia.