Hans Ulrich Obrist's 40,000-Book Archive and Literary Influences
Hans Ulrich Obrist, the artistic director at Serpentine Galleries, possesses a personal collection exceeding 40,000 books, with many housed at LUMA Arles. His daily ritual of acquiring one book began following a childhood incident at the age of six. His enthusiasm for literature blossomed at the library of the St. Gallen monastery in Switzerland. Presently, he is engrossed in Kenneth O. Stanley's 'Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned' and is researching Hildegard von Bingen for a sound project at the Vatican Pavilion. For twelve years, his Instagram handwriting initiative has gathered sentences from artists. Obrist suggests Édouard Glissant's 'Sartorius' and Souleymane Bachir Diagne's 'Le fagot de ma mémoire' to emerging curators. His memoir, 'Life in Progress,' was released by Le Seuil and has been translated into both English and German.
Key facts
- Hans Ulrich Obrist owns over 40,000 books, with many stored at LUMA Arles.
- He buys one book daily, a practice stemming from a childhood hospital stay at age six.
- Obrist is the artistic director of Serpentine Galleries, where he joined in 2006.
- His Instagram handwriting project, inspired by Umberto Eco and Etel Adnan, has run for twelve years.
- He recommends Édouard Glissant's 'Sartorius: Le roman des Batoutos' for young curators.
- Obrist's memoir 'Life in Progress' was originally published in French by Le Seuil.
- He frequently shops at Koenig Books in London and Cologne and the London Review Bookshop.
- Aby Warburg's Mnemosyne Atlas influenced his early curatorial work, discovered in Konstanz, Germany.
Entities
Artists
- Hans Ulrich Obrist
- Umberto Eco
- Etel Adnan
- Koo Jeong A
- Simone Fattal
- Robert Walser
- Carl Seelig
- Gerhard Richter
- Holly Herndon
- Mat Dryhurst
- Ben Vickers
- Soundwalk Collective
- Hanna Girma
- Stephanie Wambugu
- Ebun Sodipo
- Eliot Haworth
- Alex Quicho
- Nathalie Sarraute
- Minsuk Cho
- Heman Chong
- Marina Tabassum
- Pedro Reyes
- David Hockney
- Claude Monet
- Gustav Metzger
- Lydia Cabrera
- Édouard Glissant
- Alighiero Boetti
- Annemarie Sauzeau
- Souleymane Bachir Diagne
- Lorenzo Marsili
- Henri Bergson
- Muhammad Iqbal
- Dona Watson
- Ryan Trecartin
- Aby Warburg
- Professor Binswanger
- Michel Foucault
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Giacometti
- Meret Oppenheim
- Rick Rubin
Institutions
- Serpentine Galleries
- LUMA Arles
- Palazzo Diedo
- Vatican Pavilion
- Serpentine Reader
- Koenig Books
- London Review Bookshop
- Bloomberg Connects
- Mass Studies
- Americas Society
- Le Seuil
- Penguin
- CULTURED
- Swiss railway system
- Hotel Waldhaus
- Nietzsche-Haus
- St. Gallen monastery library
Locations
- Arles
- France
- London
- United Kingdom
- Venice
- Italy
- St. Gallen
- Switzerland
- Konstanz
- Germany
- Paris
- Sils Maria
- Engadin
- Cologne
- Mexico
- Normandy