​I was born in the studio Of Fischli/Weiss

With Nav Haq

Intro

  • Nav Haq (a curator) interviews Hans Obrist to discuss ideas about interviews as a research methodology, how they have played an inherent role in his curatorial practice, and why he believes they can generate cross disciplinary dialogue (108).

 

  • This interview comes at a time where Hans Obrist became co-director of Exhibitions and Programs, and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery, located in London. This was the site of the first “24-Hour Interview Marathon” (108).

Serpentine Gallery London

Established in 1970

The first “24-Hour Interview Marathon”

Interest in Interviews

  • Nav Haq asks the question, can you recall how you first became interested in giving interviews? (109)

 

  • ​As a teenager, Hans visited many artists regularly, but Fischli/Weiss (Peter Fischli & David Weiss) were the ones he visited the most. It wasn’t that he was born in the studio of Fischli/Weiss, but rather “reborn” in their studio (109).

 

  • It was after visiting their galleries, and watching them work on a film, “The Way Things Go”, that Hans decided it was time to begin working more directly with visual art and to present work in a domestic setting.

David Weiss & Peter Fischli

Start of Interviews

  • After viewing “The Way Things Go” and researching visual art, he did his first “Kitchen Show” which consisted of 7 artists and was viewed by 30 people. This marked the beginning of his first interview process (109).

 

  • Hans was given a grant to go to Paris to live and work as a curator. This led him to conduct many studio visits with artists as well as lots of interviews (109).

 

  • He conducted interviews in television studios with artists, however, he preferred doing interviews in more informal settings, like over coffee or in a taxi, and thought it would be interesting to find a way to record the interviews without dragging people into a recording studio.

Conversation Vs Print

  • Hans has an archive of 1,600 filmed conversations. Most videos are transcribed (110).

 

  • Nav discusses there always being a discrepancy between an actual interview conversation and what eventually appears in printed form (114).

 

The Art World

  • In order to understand the forces effective in the art world, it is important to look at other fields of knowledge (110).

Art - Architecture, Music, Sculptures, Poetry, Animation...

The Relationship of Art and Other Subjects

  • “Two is company, and three is a crowd” (111).
  • Hans started interviewing with other curators which allowed for different formats and different ways of approaching the interview process (111).

  • He then started interviewing 3 people at a time and what that created was a mutual curiosity among the people in the interview to ask questions regarding the other fields.

    He used to do specific interviews by categories: Art interviews, science interviews, architecture interviews...

  • If you only interview a single field, cross fertilization between the fields is missing (112).

Diversity of the Art World

  • There are curators, artists, critics, gallerists, and collectors, all of whom are forces. The art world is a polyphony of these different forces which homogenize and ultimately have an impact on the art world (113).

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Unlike exhibitions where you have deadlines, conversations are where I can forget about time, or liberate time (113).

A different view

Nav asks if Hans edits his own interview texts?  (114)

  • Different Languages - Transcription is not always logically connected or coherent.


Nav asks: Have you had the experience of revisiting one of your own previous interviews and developing a different understanding of an artist’s practice? (115)

Frequently, perceptions change over time!



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