MOAD Talks
Hans Ulrich Obrist on
Hreinn Fridfinnsson:
For the Time Being

MOAD Talks
Hans Ulrich Obrist on Hreinn Fridfinnsson: For the Time Being

Internationally renowned curator, writer, and interviewer Hans Ulrich Obrist leads viewers on a tour of the exhibition Hreinn Fridfinnsson: For the Time Being, examining the artist's romantic conceptualism and wry humor. Obrist knows Fridfinnsson's work well, having curated the artist's retrospective in 2007 at the Serpentine Galleries in London and the Reykjavik Art Museum, which traveled the following year to the Bergen Kunstmuseum and the Malmö Konsthall. Obrist will discuss his experiences working with Fridfinnsson and his significant influence on younger generations of artists.

Hans Ulrich Obrist (b. 1968, Zurich, Switzerland) is Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London, Senior Advisor at LUMA Arles, and Senior Artistic Advisor at The Shed in New York. Since his first show, World Soup (The Kitchen Show), in 1991, he has curated more than 350 exhibitions. Most notable amongst these are the ongoing Do It series, begun in 1993; Take Me (I'm Yours) in London (1995), Paris (2015), New York (2016), and Milan (2017); and the Swiss Pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Biennale in Venice (2014). Obrist has also co-curated the Cities on the Move series (1996–2000); Laboratorium (1999); the operatic group exhibition Il Tempo del Postino in Manchester (2007) and Basel (2009); and The 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Rooms series (2011–15). Obrist's recent shows include IT'S URGENT at LUMA Arles (2019-21), and Enzo Mari at Triennale Milano (2020). The Handwriting Project, which protests the disappearance of handwriting in the digital age, has been taking place on Instagram since 2013 (@hansulrichobrist).

In 2011 Obrist received the CCS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence, and in 2015 he was awarded the International Folkwang Prize. Most recently he was honored by the Appraisers Association of America with the 2018 Award for Excellence in the Arts. Obrist has lectured internationally at academic and art institutions, and is contributing editor to several magazines and journals. His recent publications include Ways of Curating (2015), The Age of Earthquakes (2015), Lives of the Artists, Lives of Architects (2015), Mondialité (2017), Somewhere Totally Else (2018), The Athens Dialogues (2018), Maria Lassnig: Letters (2020), Entrevistas Brasileiras: Volume 2 (2020), An Exhibition Always Hides Another Exhibition (2019), The Extreme Self: Age of You (2021), and Remember Nature (2021).