Hans Ulrich Obrist

The artist s important work centers the on Black community, both aesthetically and materially. Halsey gathers icons of pride, autonomy, initiative, and resilience from local vernacular sources recontextualizing and reinterpreting them for her utopic fantasies of the city. Both celebrating Black cultural expressions and archiving them, her work which includes wall works, massive multiroom installations, and immersive outdoor environments is a potent reminder of the importance of community and home. Beyond the signs and symbols of contemporary South Central, Halsey employs the iconography of ancient Egypt as a means to reclaim lost legacies, drawing inspiration from Afrofuturism a transcultural movement blending science fiction with aspects of Black art and culture and the utopian architecture proposed in the 1960s by Archigram and Superstudio.

HENI Publishing is delighted to present INVADER: In Conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, a book that offers unique insight into the enigmatic French street artist, renowned for his iconic ceramic tile mosaics inspired by the pixelated 8-bit video game art of the 1970s and 80s. INVADER features an expansive, in-depth interview conducted by Hans Ulrich Obrist, which guides readers through the artist’s recent Paris exhibition, Invader Space Station (17 February – 5 May 2024), in the first section and through his studio in the second, offering an unparalleled glimpse into Invader’s technical and creative processes, and the global impact of his work. The first section of the book traces the route of the exhibition – held at the former offices of the newspaper Libération– with sub-chapters corresponding to the ‘levels’ of the show, reflecting on the conceptual and spatial dimensions of Invader’s work and his position as a ‘hacker’ of public spaces. The second section takes place in the artist’s studio where the conversation continues on a more personal note, offering an intimate look into Invader’s creative world. Richly illustrated, the book maps Invader’s numerous artistic encounters, from the graphic novels of Enki Bilal to legendary street artists like Leonard Hilton McGurr (aka Futura 2000) and Tsang Tsou-choi (the ‘King of Kowloon’), as well as his relationships with contemporaries including the provocative British artist Damien Hirst, American artist and activist Shepard Fairey and New York graffiti artist Revs.

The Christo Interviews brings together a series of conversations between the artist, who is best known for the large-scale, site-specific environmental installations he created in collaboration with artistic partner and wife, Jeanne-Claude, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the pre-eminent commentator on and curator of contemporary art. Taking place between December 2012 and May 2020, the interviews provide insight into the individual minds of two of the art world’s most esteemed figures, while also tracking the unfolding of their entire working relationship. Hans Ulrich describes these as ‘werksttat interviews’, meaning ‘a workshop or laboratory of words’ and taken together, they also reveal the progress of The London Mastaba, Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park (2016-18), Christo’s first major public outdoor work in the UK, which coincided with an exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries outlining Christo and Jeanne Claude’s 60-year history of working with oil barrels. Fully illustrated with images of finished works, drawings and documentary photographs from throughout Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s long and successful career, this hardback reading book features previously unpublished material and the final conversation in the book was Christo’s last ever interview, recorded shortly before his passing.

The artist’s biography as told by Metzger himself, a leader of the Auto-Destructive Art and Art Strike movements. A visionary artist and radical thinker, Gustav Metzger asked provocative questions about the role of the artist and of conventional forms of artmaking and display. In this richly illustrated book, Metzger tells the story of his life and work in a series of interviews with the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. He recounts his Orthodox Jewish childhood in 1930s Nuremberg and his arrival in England as part of the Kindertransport before shedding light on his development as an artist, including his early contributions to computer art, his leading role in the Destruction in Art Symposium of 1966, and his call for an ‘art strike’ from 1977–80. An artist for our times, Metzger’s uncompromising commitment to combating environmental destruction was fundamental to his understanding of art as a vehicle for change. This publication speaks emphatically to the undimmed urgency of Metzger’s artistic position, offering an insight into his interests in ecology and nature and, in the later part of his life, the threat of extinction and the motto he adapted from W. H. Auden: ‘We must become idealists or die.’

Against All Odds – Historiske kvinder og nye algoritmer udforsker 24 nordiske kunstneres liv og værker omkring år 1900 gennem banebrydende kombinationer af historisk genindskrivning og ny teknologi. Kvinderne trodsede tidens kønsnormer, dannede egne fællesskaber på tværs af Europa og fik succes mod alle odds. Senere blev flere skrevet ud af kunsthistorien, men hvorfor? Kan man skrive kvinderne ind i den fortælling, der skrev dem ud, uden at ændre den? Læs, hvordan teknologi, kritisk tænkning og kunst forenes i en hyldest til fortidens pionerer. Med tværæstetiske greb, immersive installationer og AI-genererede dialoger udfordrer udstilling og katalog vores forståelse af fortiden og åbner nye perspektiver på kunsthistorien.

Against All Odds – Historical Women and New Algorithms explores the lives and works of 24 Nordic artists around 1900 through pioneering combinations of historical reinscribing and new technology. These women defied the gender norms of their time, formed their own communities across Europe and succeeded against all odds. Later, several were written out of art history. Why? Is it possible to write these women into the narrative that excluded them without changing the story? Discover how technology, critical thinking and art merge in a tribute to pioneers of the past. Through cross-aesthetic approaches, immersive installations and AI-generated dialogues, the exhibition and catalogue challenge our understanding of the past and open new perspectives on art history.

Hans Ulrich Obrist leads readers into the world of path-breaking Syrian artist Simone Fattal in this intensely personal volume. For over five decades, Simone Fattal (b. 1942, Damascus) has eschewed any singular form or subject in her wide-ranging practice. In this deeply personal volume, Fattal's close friend and confidante Hans Ulrich Obrist delves into the artist's past to explore the remarkable breadth of her body of work. After studying philosophy, first in Beirut and then Paris, Fattal returned to Beirut in 1969 and began life as a painter--creating sensuous abstract works that diverged from the predominantly figurative paintings commonly exhibited in Lebanon at the time. In 1980, after a decade spent in Lebanon as a painter, Fattal fled the civil war, abandoned her painting practice, and settled in Sausalito, California, where she founded the revolutionary publishing house Post-Apollo Press. In 1988, after studying sculpture in San Francisco, Fattal was consumed by another wave of creativity that led her to pursue ceramic sculptures--a medium in which she continues to work to this day from her studio in Paris. Alongside prose and interviews with Fattal by Obrist, a foreword by Dr. Omar Kholeif situates Fattal's early practice in the broader schema of art to emerge in West Asia, while an afterword by Rasha Salti delves into the influence of European and Arabic mythology on Fattal's artmaking. Published by Sternberg Press in collaboration with artPost21

Hans Ulrich Obrist and Christian Boltanski are not only associated through their longstanding friendship: Boltanski was also the first artist that Obrist ever exhibited. Over the course of this friendship the two have often met for discussions, the earliest of which, from 1994, are published here. Whether on a taxi-boat in Venice, in his atelier or at an exhibition in Ljubljana, Botanski readily divulges information on his projects. His collaborations with other artists such as Ilya Kabakov, which have also led him into the field of performance arts such as opera and dance, are a particular theme of the conversations; on occasion, other interlocutors step in, such as the designer Jean Kalman or the sociologist Luc Boltanski (Christian Boltanski's brother). The result is an informal portrait of one of the most important artists of our time.

Over the course of about ten years, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Matthew Barney met several times to discuss Barney's past work, current projects and his plans for the future. The resulting collection of interviews provides a rare insight into how the work and working method of one of the most prominent artists of a generation has developed over time, and uncovers the ideas, influences and collaborations that lie behind his multi-layered and multimedia creative output. The conversation covers all of his major pieces to date, from the internationally acclaimed Cremaster cycle to the somewhat less well-known Drawing Restraint series, as well as looking at particular projects in more detail, such as the recent "Khu" performance and Barney's participation in Il Tempo del Postino, curated by Obrist at the 2007 Manchester International Festival.

Since the mid-1960s when he started out as a fledgling critic, Dan Graham has carved out a unique role for himself, expanding the scope of the Conceptual artist to incorporate art criticism, music criticism, photography and architecture. For this volume, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist met with Graham on several occasions to discuss the artist's work, life and the numerous interests he passionately follows. The conversation thus wanders seamlessly from architecture to rock and roll, philosophy to astrology, Graham's early performance pieces, photography and articles, to the films and glass pavilions for which he is best known today. A fountain of art folklore, Graham offers recollections of friends and colleagues, art work and influences, providing an invaluable insight not only into the New York art scene of the 60s and 70s, but also one of its most influential representatives.

Following the 2014 publication of Hans Ulrich Obrist's The Czech Files, this publication brings together 11 interviews with Indian artists and cultural producers carried out in the 2000s and 2010s by Obrist in the artists' studios or exhibitions. Edited by Shanay Jhaveri, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art Assistant Curator of South Asian Art, this book is a much-needed volume about the Indian art scene. Conversations with M. F. Husain, Gulam Mohammed Sheik, Geeta Kapur, Vivan Sundaram, Nalini Malani, Dayanita Singh, Amar Kanwar, Zarina Hashmi, Shilpa Gupta, Bharti Kher and Raqs Media Collective, among others--all born between 1915 and 1976--map the evolution of contemporary art in India from its Independence in 1947--the starting point of an artistic revival. The artists notably express the will to break with an established nationalist art and to respond to the lack of institutional support in the second half of the 20th century.

A Great Light is a striking catalogue published to accompany the exhibition of the same name, both testaments to British artist Brian Clarke’s widely regarded status as the most important artist working in stained glass today. Across his five-decades-long career, Clarke has consistently pushed the boundaries of stained glass as a medium in terms of technology and its visual potential. Focusing on large-scale works, A Great Light crystallises Clarke’s vision for stained glass as fundamentally architectural, his works the result of a dedicated respect for the buildings they inhabit and the surrounding contexts of his practice. The book offers a view of the impactful interaction between space and artwork, as over 130 beautifully reproduced images fill its pages and extend into the gatefolds. Published in association with Newport Street Gallery, A Great Light features 68 stained-glass artworks as well as installation shots of the final exhibition, prefaced by an interview between Clarke and world-renowned Swiss curator, art historian and critic Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of Serpentine Galleries in London.

A definitive and timely monograph celebrating the work of ground-breaking conceptual artist Cerith Wyn Evans Cerith Wyn Evans is one of today's most respected and acclaimed sculptors. Born in Wales and educated through his first language of Welsgh, his work reflects his fascination with literature, film, music, and philosophy. Evans is an artist interested in language and how this can be perceived in spatial terms. Originally an experimental filmmaker, in the 1990s Evans started creating sculptures and installations defined by poetic conceptualism and elegant aesthetic forms. Often made of neon light, his pieces subtly disrupt existing systems of communication, either through the subversion and alteration of given spatial forms or by adopting a communal rather than a singular, authoritarian voice. In 2003 Evans represented Wales at the country’s inaugural pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale. This book, the first comprehensive study dedicated to his work, includes contributions by luminaries such as the former Guggenheim Chief, Nancy Spector and the 2011 Venice Biennale director, Daniel Birnbaum, together with a previously unpublished text by Evans himself.

Hans Ulrich Obrist, the Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London, brings his curating expertise to the Instagram feeds of more than 388,000 followers (and counting!), in an endeavour to revive the art of handwriting from within an ever-advancing digital age. The result is one of the most comprehensive looks at the art world from the inside; inclusive of artists, writers, designers, musicians, actors, architects and public figures. In his open-ended Instagram project, Obrist collects an abundance of thoughts for the day, dreams, drawings, musings, jokes, quotations, questions, answers, poems, and puns from some of the world’s greatest contemporary artists, handwritten on everyday Post-it notes (and other scraps). From the reassuringly philosophical to the inspiringly straightforward, the ingeniously funny to the tenderly post-humous, Remember to Dream! (a note from American artist Carrie Mae Weems) paints a picture of the art world direct from many of the most celebrated artists of the twenty-first century. The book features an introduction by Hans Ulrich Obrist and is designed by Amsterdam-based award-winning book designer Irma Boom.

Catalogue Raisonn of Paintings and Sculptures

The Richter Interviews collects together a series of conversations between Hans Ulrich Obrist and Gerhard Richter over the course of more than two decades of discussion and collaboration. Subjects range from Richter’s place within art history to artists’ books, architecture, religion, unrealised projects and his advice for young artists. The collection also includes a previously unpublished interview focused on Richter’s much-lauded window for Cologne Cathedral, unveiled in 2007. Obrist’s vast knowledge and interrogating mind coupled with his longstanding friendship with Richter make him a unique interlocutor for an artist whose work spans more than 60 years and ranges from painting to photography, glass to printmaking, watercolours to books. Obrist deftly guides the reader through a dazzling array of topics and offers an invaluable historical perspective on Richter’s place within the art world of the 20th and 21st centuries. Illustrations of discussed artworks by Richter feature throughout the texts for visual reference – making this an indispensable guide to the thinking and creative processes of one of the world’s most admired artists.