Hans Ulrich Obrist - Dontstopdontstopdontstop

RES Publications, in addition to RES Art World/World Art magazine, is publishing books on art theory and art criticism. Its second title, dontstopdontstopdontstop by Hans Ulrich Obrist, is available in bookstores since September 2013. The first title to be published by RES was Heinz Peter Schwerfel’s Cinema and Art: A Love Story (Kunst und Kino: Eine Liebesgeschichte), which appeared in April. 

dontstopdontstopdontstop was translated from English by Sabri Gürses, bringing together a selection of essays by Hans Ulrich Obrist between 1990 and 2006; the author is a regular contributor to RES Art World/World Art, appearing in almost every issue. Thomas Bayrle created a new work entitled HUO for the cover of durmadurmadurmadurma, and the book was designed by Bülent Erkmen. 

One of the leading independent curators of contemporary art, Hans Ulrich Obrist is known for his productivity both as a writer and a curator. Currently the Director of Exhibitions and Programmes at the Serpentine Gallery, London, Obrist has curated over 250 exhibitions, and the Conversation Series, where he collects his innumerable interviews, has reached its 22nd issue. Obrist earned his well-deserved fame through the exhibitions and experimental projects such as museum in progress and The Robert Walser Museum, as well as his interviews with prominent figures of contemporary art, offering deep insights into their art production through asking seemingly simple questions in an extremely effective way, bringing out the most intimate and personal responses from his counterparts and hence putting them on record. 

Using the variability and “changeability” of exhibition venues and exhibited art works, Obrist treats exhibitions as experiments with different formulae, independent though waiting to be connected in the future. Every equation involving idea, artist, and curator, finds a place in Obrist’s “permanent” and written” world while still alive. durmadurmadurmadurma, which brings together texts that succinctly reflect Obrist as curator, author and interviewer, also constitutes a subjective testimony to the role played by contemporary art in the increasingly globalizing world of the last twenty years, and showcases an original approach to the production of leading creators of contemporary art, design, and architecture, such as Rem Koolhaas, Cedric Price, and Rikrit Travanija.