A life’s work: Hans Ulrich Obrist on art, meaning and being driven

‘Whenever I do something – an exhibition, a book, a public art project – I wonder how it is useful for the world. To what extent is it useful for an audience; for the arts, not for the artists?’ It is a question which preoccupied Serpentine Galleries’ artistic director and cultural polymath Hans Ulrich Obrist as he sat down to write his memoir, Life in Progress, published by Allen Lane, in the early weeks of lockdown.

‘I didn't grow up in a family that had access to art. My parents didn't take me to museums. I went out into the world and found my own mentors. I thought that hopefully this would be useful for younger people to read, to have this encouragement to just go out into the world. Sometimes it seems quite complicated for younger people to find the beginning and to start.’

A famously staunch champion of the arts and artists, this enterprising spirit that defined Obrist’s early years can occasionally come as a surprise upon reading his memoir. Born in 1968 in a small town in Zurich, Obrist sought out his own cultural stimulation, travelling Europe by train to meet all the artists who responded to him. As a teenager, he staged his first exhibition of 250 photographs in his tiny kitchen before criss-crossing the continent, eventually becoming a curator at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, before becoming director of the Serpentine with Julia Peyton Jones in 2006.

Throughout the short and succinct book, Obrist’s love of knowledge and forming connections is striking. ‘There is this idea that we can be a great expert in a specific field, but then there is so much we don't know outside that field,’ he says. ‘And it's actually all relevant. In my case, in art, I always felt it's important to find out what's happening outside the field of art – what's happening in science, music, literature and architecture. With a lot of artists now, I see that desire to break down these walls. So that's something which I think is important in terms of the current moment.’

And Obrist knows his artists. The book, itself a project he has curated, is a who’s who of the art world, with references to Fischli & Weiss, Edouard Glissant, Marina Abramović, Umberto Eco, Etel Adnan, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Gustav Metzger, Louise Bourgeois, Gilbert and George, Tomás Saraceno, Kasper König, Rem Koolhaas, Bruno Latour, Annette Messager, Yoko Ono and Gerhard Richter, as well as many others, scattered throughout.

From Fischli & Weiss visiting him in his small flat in St Gallen before his kitchen exhibition, and buying enormous catering-sized portions of ketchup and rice to make the unused space seem more normal, to an exhibition co-curated with Gerhard Richter at Nietzsche’s house in Sils-Maria, the unexpected encounter drives Obrist. Everywhere, and everything, becomes a possibility for art.

‘I think it’s particularly important right now that art doesn't just happen behind the doors of exhibitions,’ he says. ‘Even with free admission – and that's very important for us, that it's for everyone – it’s not enough.’

Many years ago, says Obrist, a taxi driver dropped him off early in the morning at the Serpentine. ‘He said that he wanted me to tell the story of his daughter, that they walked in the park, and he would never take his kids to a museum, because his parents had told him museums were not for them. But then suddenly, as the Serpentine Pavilion has no doors, the daughter ran in. Now, she wants to be an architect. It’s one of the reasons why I get out of bed in the morning.’

When writing the book, Obrist was forced to look back on incidents like this that have shaped his life and career. It has led to initiatives he has spearheaded around the world, from taking art out of its traditional environment to questioning what art itself can be. ‘I really thought about how art came to me, and how I came to art. Growing up in a household where there were relatively few books, the only way I could find out about art was when it came to me through unusual channels.’

'Life in Progress' by Hans Ulrich Obrist, released on 2 October, is published by Allen Lane. Available at amazon.co.uk