'HANS ULRICH OBRIST WILL BE HERE IN 20 MINUTES', A BANNER BY RAFAEL RG

"Hans Ulrich Obrist will be here in 20 minutes. Don't miss him!" a banner by Rafael RG (born in Brazil, 1986) which was installed in 2010 in abandoned public spaces of the city of Fortaleza in Brazil.

The banner makes reference to one of HUO heroes, curatorial pioneer Walter Hopps who was always famously late and preferred to work outside of normal office hours, from midnight to sunrise. Walter Hopps’s legendary elusiveness prompted the employees at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., where he served as director in the 1970s, to make buttons reading "Walter Hopps will be here in 20 minutes."

The banner by Rafael RG in Fortaleza, announces an event that will never happen, and refers to the expectations of the "peripheries" to be discovered and validated by the centre.

It also reminds me of of 'Waiting for Mr. Marshall', the Spanish film of 1953 by Garcia Berlanga which tells the story of small Spanish village, which upon knowing that the Americans are going to pass through town, embarks in a process of preparation and beautification of the village in order to be up to the expectations of the North American visitors, and benefit from the Marshall plan. When the Americans finally arrive, the streets are lined with the people dressed in their traditional clothes, the band plays, a Welcome banner hangs on the middle of the road, but the American convoy passes hurriedly through the village's main road without even making a stop. See the fantastic final scene here.

Amigos and Amigas, there's no more centre, the centre is everywhere, you are the centre.

All the best for 2012,

PLB

You can see more of Rafael RG's work here: http://cargocollective.com/rafaelrg

HANS ULRICH OBRIST TALKS ABOUT HIS FIRST EXHIBITION INSIDE HIS KITCHEN WITH PABLO LEON DE LA BARRA INSIDE A CAR IN MIAMI

Hans Ulrich Obrist in Conversation with Pablo Leon de la Barra about his first exhibition which took place inside his kitchen in 1991. Within the new European economy and European debt (is Europe the new Latin America?) HUO early exhibition strategies, including the exhibition within the kitchen, but also the Robert Walser Museum in Switzerland (a vitrine in a restaurant where the writer used to go to drink, a non-monumental, modest, and very discreet museum, an elastic institution: a migratory museum), and his Do it! exhibition (sets of instructions to produce works) make more sense than ever.


and having lunch at Enriquetas Cafe in Miami with Beatrix Ruf, Mr. Ruf, HUO and PLB

'SAVAGE LAVA JUNGLES' PLB'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE SERPENTINE GALLERY GARDEN MARATHON CURATED BY HUO

Pablo Leon de la Barra presenting Savage Lava Jungles at the Serpentine Gallery's Garden Marathon


Garden Route 1, from Barragan to Xiltila, to Leonora Carrington, to Concrete Jungle, to Pellicer in Tabasco


Garden Route 2, from Barragan to Niemeyer, to Ibirapuera, to Sanaa, to Burle Marx, to Lina Bo-Bardi


Garden Route 3, from Pellicer, to Dr. Atl, to Barragan in el Pedregal, to Goeritz and Escobedo at Espacio Escultorico


Dominique Gonzalez Foerster's Plan for Escape Park at Documenta XI in 2002


Dominique Gonzalez Foerster's Concrete Desert Park in the Tropics in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2010


PLB, Ballard Park for DGF


Tate Modern under lava, inspired by Dr Atl's volcano paintings of lava covering the village of Paricutin


Gugenheim NY under lava


Lina Bo Bardi's partially covered Casa de Vidrio


Lava Museu, Partially Buried Courtyards


Lava Museum Grotto Gardens Cave Cube


the geodesic tent where the Marathon took place


Julia Peyton Jones presenting the Garden Marathon


Hans Ulrich Obrist presenting the Garden Marathon (photo by Federico Martelli, courtesy Serpentine Gallery)

Garden Marathon by night


tropical plants inside geodesia


shadows of the tropics


Geodesic pavilion at night with Hans Peter Feldman Christmas tree

Press Release:
Serpentine Gallery Garden Marathon
Saturday 15 October 12 noon -- 10 pm Sunday 16 October 11 am -- 9 pm

The Serpentine Gallery Garden Marathon is the sixth in the Gallery’s renowned Marathon series, an ambitious two-day event that takes place in London during Frieze Art Fair week. A live programme of continuous presentations by artists, writers, philosophers, scholars, musicians, architects, designers and scientists will take place in a specially constructed dome outside the Serpentine. The event is directly inspired by the acclaimed Serpentine Gallery Pavilion designed by Peter Zumthor with Piet Oudolf’s garden at its centre.

Marathon participants:
Etel Adnan, Brian Aldiss, Maria Thereza Alves, Rosie Atkins, Yto Barrada and Sean Gullette, Gianfranco Baruchello, Gerry Bibby, Stefano Boeri, John Brockman, Pablo Bronstein, Lizzie Carey-Thomas, Hélène Cixous, Emer Coleman, Pascal Cribier, Adam Curtis, David Deutsch, Elizabeth Diller, Jimmie Durham, Marcus du Sautoy, Brian Eno, Patrick Eyres, Hans-Peter Feldmann, FIELDCLUB, Sophie Fiennes, Adriaan Geuze, Jef Geys, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Dan Graham, Rodney Graham, Fritz Haeg with Denise Withers, Zarina Hashmi, Will Holder, Jennifer Jacquet, Charles Jencks, Koo Jeong-A, Alison Knowles and Meghan DellaCrosse, Pablo León de la Barra, Jonas Mekas and David Ellis, Catherine Mosbach, muf architecture/art, Christian Philipp Müller, Peter Murray-Rust, Silke Otto-Knapp, Mark Pagel, Philippe Parreno, Giuseppe Penone, Julia Peyton-Jones, Alice Rawsthorn, Carissa Rodriguez and Avena Gallagher, David Rowan, Peter Saville and Anna Blessmann, Rüdiger Schöttle, Richard Sennett, Bas Smets, Paul Smith, Something & Son, Susan Stenger, Corin Sworn, Wolfgang Tillmans, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Günther Vogt, Sophie von Cundale, Alex Waterman, Cerith Wyn Evans, Andrea Zanzotto and Qiu Zhijie.

As well as: The observer’s guide to the Serpentine Gallery Garden Marathon -- compiled in one voice, in the field, by a pool: Paul Becker, Ian Evans, Will Holder, John D. Millar, Francesco Pedraglio, Heather Phillipson, Natasha Soobramienen, Cally Spooner, Nick Thurston and Luke Williams.

Contributions from key figures from multiple disciplines will include explorations of the spatial, urban and scientific importance of gardens to the significance of the garden in our experience of the world as well as cutting- edge research in biodiversity, conservation and genetics. Gardens have been a source of inspiration for artists, writers and poets such as Ian Hamilton Finlay whose permanent installation can be seen in the Gallery’s grounds.

Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects; Sally Tallant, Head of Programmes; Nicola Lees, Public Programmes Curator and Lucia Pietroiusti, Assistant Curator, Serpentine Gallery.

Serpentine Gallery Marathons are a unique series of events that bring together the fields of art, culture, science and technology. Previous Marathons have included last year’s Map Marathon 2010, following on from the Poetry Marathon 2009, Manifesto Marathon 2008, Experiment Marathon 2007 and the Interview Marathon 2006.

Marathon Programme:

SATURDAY 15 OCTOBER 12pm – 5pm
Julia Peyton-Jones Hans Ulrich Obrist
Introductions

Wolfgang Tillmans
Ursuppe and Other Garden Pictures

Rosie Atkins
A History of Garden Design in 20 Minutes

Jef Geys
Quadra Medicinale: Weeds and Biodiversity

Gianfranco Baruchello
The Coefficient – The Garden as a Joint Agent

Hélène Cixous
Un vrai jardin – A Real Garden

Etel Adnan
The Spring Flowers Own

Patrick Eyres
Ian Hamilton Finlay and Little Sparta 

Cerith Wyn Evans
Reading: Poems by Ian Hamilton Finlay

Alice Rawsthorn
Interviews Adriaan Geuze, Something & Son and FIELDCLUB

Adriaan Geuze Something & Son
Born in a Shed

FIELDCLUB
Some Aspects of Neo-Agrosophy

Dan Graham
Museum as Garden/Garden as Museum

5pm – 10pm
Brian Aldiss
Interviewed by Hans Ulrich Obrist 

Rodney Graham
Lobbing Potatoes at a Gong 

Günther Vogt
Reality as Model as Reality

Rüdiger Schöttle
Theatergarden Bestiarium

Alison Knowles and Meghan DellaCrosse
Loose Pages

Pascal Cribier
Garden, Nature or Landscape?

Zarina Hashmi
Invisible Gardens

Elizabeth Diller
Agri-tecture

Fritz Haeg & DeniseWithers
How a Garden can Change Your Life

Christian Philipp Müller
The New World

Muf architecture/art
The Rehearsal

Peter Saville & Anna Blessmann
TV Blumen

Gerry Bibby
No Picnic (A Promenade of the Hearts), performed with Sophie Corin Sworn
Out of Range

Rodney Graham
Lobbing Potatoes at a Gong

Susan Stenger
Ryoanji, by John Cage

SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER
11am – 5pm
Marcus du Sautoy
Exploring the Mathematical Garden

John Brockman
In Conversation with:

Brian Eno

Jennifer Jacquet

Shame Totem v.2.0 

Mark Pagel, 

Cities as Gardens 

Jimmie Durham
Berlin, April 2000

Paul Smith
Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank: Supporting Innovation and Adaptation in Horticulture in a Changing World

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster & Pablo León De La Barra
SAVAGE LAVA JUNGLES

David Rowan, Emer Coleman & Peter Murray-Rust
Walled Gardens vs. Open Spaces: The Tension at the Heart of the Internet

Stefano Boeri
A Planetary Kitchen Garden

Richard Sennett
Open and Closed:How Gardens Serve as Places for Reflection

Catherine Mosbach
Phase Shift Park

Giuseppe Penone
The Garden Begins when a Man Tramples the Soil

Silke Otto-Knapp
“Recollections of a Happy Life, being the Autobiography of Marianne North”, a reading

Charles Jencks
The Universe in the Landscape 

Pablo Bronstein
In Conversation with Lizzie Carey-Thomas

5pm – 8.30pm
Sophie von Cundale
The Garden of Endemol

Jonas Mekas and David Ellis
Orvydas Garden

Adam Curtis
I Am not a Garden. I Am a Machine

Carissa Rodriguez & Avena Gallagher
Wowowee

Philippe Parreno & Bas Smets
CHZ

Mierle Laderman Ukeles
Transfer and Exchange: Proposal for 1 Million Participants to Participate in an Artwork for Freshkills Park, NYC: Public Offerings Made by All Redeemed by All

Yto Barrada
Sean Gullette Reads from Yto Barrada’s “A Guide to Trees for Governors and Gardeners”, with a Slideshow

Sophie Fiennes
3a The Little House

Alex Waterman
Beacons of Ancestorship

With additional contributions by
Maria Thereza Alves
...sur l’herbe (homage à Domenico & Vincenzo Mancini)
David Deutsch
Why Are Flowers Beautiful?
Hans-Peter Feldmann
ChristmasTree
Will Holder
Pool (see back page)
Koo Jeong-A
Undisturbed Pools
Andrea Zanzotto
Reading by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Qiu Zhijie

http://www.serpentinegallery.org

HUO, 'BRIEF HISTORY OF CURATING' NOW AVAILABLE EN ESPAÑOL

I love how the Spanish use the word Comisario instead of Curador!





español/ingles

En 'Breve Historia del Comisariado', Hans Ulrich Obrist (Codirector de exposiciones y programación y director de proyectos internaciones de la Serpentine Gallery de Londres) realiza un apasionante recorrido por la historia del comisariado de exposiciones a partir de una serie de entrevistas a algunos de los pioneros de esta disciplina como Harald Szeemann, Pontus Hultén, Anne d'Harnoncourt, Werner Hofmann, Jean Leering, Franz Meyer, Seth Siegelaub, Walter Zanini, Johannes Cladders, Lucy Lippard o Walter Hopps. En cada uno de estos diálogos, el lector descubrirá la intrahistoria de un trabajo que hoy en día se ha convertido en la aspiración de muchos jóvenes estudiantes de historia del arte.
Compralo aqui!

VILA MATAS AND GONZALEZ FOERSTER IN CONVERSATION AT JEAN NOUVEL'S RED PAVILION AT SERPENTINE GALLERY ON A LONDON SUMMER RAINY DAY!

Jean Nouvel's pavilion at the Serpentine, seen from the distance...





Mr PLB with supermarket plastic bag on his head for rain protection





Enrique Giner protecting himself from the rain with the Evening Standard...





the pavilion seems like a spaceship for Star Wars' red Imperial Guards











Nouvel's pavilion interior, Ibiza meets red wedding tent!





screening above them of 'On the Beach' 1959 Australian film about the end of the world







HUO, DGF, EVM





Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Enrique Vila-Matas reading the passage of Dublinesca in which DGF appears as a character.





Park Nights

Enrique Vila-Matas and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

Friday 13 August 8pm

at Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2010 designed by Jean Nouvel



Though she is a character in Enrique Vila Matas’ latest novel Dublinesca, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster is much more than a character. She is a personal friend of the writer and an artist, very much admired by him. Vila-Matas has always been fascinated by the way Gonzalez-Foerster, in her daring installations, marries cities and literature, films and hotels, architecture and abysses, psychic geographies and rain. The exchange of ideas and artistic dialogue between Vila-Matas and Gonzalez-Foerster has existed since they first met in Granada. They arrived at a reception in a hotel at the same moment and recognised one another at once as if they had always known each other. The event at the Serpentine Gallery offers the possibility of a new exchange in their international and animated conversation since they began to 'fictionally' work together.



Enrique Vila-Matas (born 1948, Barcelona) has led a very long and outstanding literary career and is one of the most prestigious and original writers in contemporary Spanish fiction. He is the author of several books which, as a trademark of his genius, mix different genres. Among his works one should not fail to mention: La asesina ilustrada (Tusquets, 1977), Historia abreviada de la literatura portátil (Anagrama, 1985), Extraña forma de vida (Anagrama, 1997), El viaje vertical (Anagrama, 1999. Rómulo Gallegos Prize), Bartleby y compañía (Anagrama, 2000, trans. Bartleby and Co., The Harvill Press, 2004 – New Directions, 2007), El mal de Montano (Anagrama, 2002, trans. Montano’s Malady, The Harvill Press, 2007 – New Directions, 2007), París no se acaba nunca (Anagrama, 2004, trans. Never Any End to Paris, New Directions, forthcoming) and Dietario Voluble (Anagrama, 2008). He is the recipient of several awards such as Premio Rómulo Gallegos 2001 (El viaje vertical). Bartleby y compañía was selected as the best book of the year by French booksellers and was awarded the Ciudad de Barcelona Award and the Fernando Aguirre-Libralire Award. El Mal de Montano (Premio Herralde, 2002) has been granted the Critics Award both in Spain and Chile, as well as the Prix Médicis in France and the Ennio Flaiano International Award. Doctor Pasavento (Anagrama, 2005) won the Fundación Lara Award 2006 and the Real Academia Española Award 2006, and El viajero más lento won the Elsa Morante Litterary Prize 2007. After Dietario voluble, Vila-Matas published Ella era Hemingway / No soy Auster, two short texts published by Alfabia in their Cuadernos Collection. His latest book is the novel Dublinesca (Seix Barral, 2010, trans. Dublinesque, The Harvill Press and New Directions, forthcoming). His works have been translated into 30 languages.



Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster was born in 1965 in Strasbourg, France. Among her recent solo exhibitions are projects for The Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London (2008); MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y Léon (2008); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris / ARC, Paris (2007); Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich (2004); and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2002). Her work was on view in Making Worlds, 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, 2009. She also participated in Skulptur Projekte Münster (2007) and Documenta XI, Kassel (2002). She is the recipient of the 2002 Marcel Duchamp Award, Paris, the 1996—97 Mies van der Rohe Award, Krefeld, and the Villa Kujoyama, Kyoto artist residency in 1996—97. In November 2009, she presented, in collaboration with composer Ari Benjamin-Meyers, a new performance in New York City as part of PERFORMA 09. Gonzalez-Foerster lives and works in Paris and Rio de Janeiro.



Park Nights

Park Nights is an annual series of music, theatre, performances, talks and film screenings stages on Friday nights in the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, this year designed by Jean Nouvel. Park Nights culminates on the weekend of 16 and 17 October with Map Marathon, the latest in the Serpentine's series of Marathon events, conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

SERPENTINE GALLERY POETRY MARATHON!

Hans Ulrich Obrist


Dominique Gonzalez Foerster




Christodolous Panayiotou


Dominic Eichler


Kenneth Bostock




Pablo Leon de la Barra, Cibelle and Kenneth Bostock


Karl Holmqvist wearing parangole!




The Serpentine Gallery Poetry Marathon is an ambitious two-day poetry event taking place in London during Frieze Art Fair week and featuring unique performances from leading poets, writers, artists, philosophers, scholars and musicians.

An international group of major figures will be brought together to perform in the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009, designed by architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the acclaimed Japanese practice SANAA. The event will include performances of new work, collaborations, discussions and experiments.

The Poetry Marathon will include contributions from Vito Acconci, Etel Adnan, Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag, Caroline Bergvall, Kenneth G. Bostock with Pablo León de la Barra and Cibelle, Boulevard Magenta/Enrique Juncosa, Stuart Brisley, Eleanor Bron, Nathan Cash Davidson, Keren Cytter with Andrew Kerton, Charlie Dark, Tacita Dean, Jimmie Durham, Dominic Eichler, Tracey Emin, Brian Eno, Mark van Eyck, James Fenton, Olivier Garbay, Gilbert & George, John Giorno, Édouard Glissant, Kenneth Goldsmith, Eugen Gomringer, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Alasdair Gray, Tim Griffin, Richard Hell, Geoffrey Hill, Sue Hubbard (presented by Susan Hiller), Karl Holmqvist, Michael Horovitz, Ranjit Hoskote, Grace Jones, Scott King with George Shaw, August Kleinzahler, Nick Laird, Sean Landers, Monika Lichtenfeld, Liliane Lijn, Sara MacKillop, Tom McCarthy with Henry Blofeld, Jonas Mekas with Edward Eke, Maria Mirabal, Eileen Myles, Daljit Nagra, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Philippe Parreno, Don Paterson, Holly Pester, Olivia Plender with Craig Burnett, Jeremy Reed with Itchy Ear, David Robilliard read by the Robilliards (Leo D. Burley and Rose Turner), Gerhard Rühm, Barry Schwabsky, Nancy Spero, Mladen Stilinović, The Bow-Wow Shop/Michael Glover, UbuWeb, Agnès Varda, Franz West, Saul Williams and Cerith Wyn Evans.

There is a long and vivid history of exchange between artists and poets. Guillaume Apollinaire made a literary connection to Cubism with his great work of 'visual poetry' Calligrammes: Poems of War and Peace 1913-1916. In the same period, Hugo Ball wrote the Dada Manifesto (1916), a movement in which the poet, essayist and performance artist Tristan Tzara was also closely involved. A decade later, in 1924, André Breton, the proponent of 'automatic writing', published La Révolution surréaliste (The Surrealist Revolution).

In the 1950s, Abstract Expressionism was an art movement with strong creative connections with writing and poetry of the time, from the work of poets Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery to artist Robert Motherwell's influential essays on the New York School. Later, in the 1960s, the international artistic network Fluxus formed innumerable close links between visual art and the written word.

The Poetry Marathon is the fourth in the series of Marathons staged in the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion each year. The Marathon series was conceived by Serpentine Gallery Co-director Hans Ulrich Obrist in 2006. The first in the series, the Interview Marathon in 2006, involved interviews with leading figures in contemporary culture over 24 hours, conducted by Obrist and architect Rem Koolhaas. This was followed by the Experiment Marathon, conceived by Obrist and artist Olafur Eliasson in 2007, which included 50 experiments by speakers across both arts and science, and the Manifesto Marathon in 2008.

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion series is an ongoing programme of temporary structures by internationally acclaimed architects and designers. It is unique worldwide and presents the work of an international architect or design team who, at the time of the Serpentine Gallery's invitation, has not completed a building in England. The Pavilion architects to date are: Frank Gehry, 2008; Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen, 2007; Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond, with Arup, 2006; Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura with Cecil Balmond, Arup, 2005; MVRDV with Arup, 2004 (un-realised); Oscar Niemeyer, 2003; Toyo Ito with Arup, 2002; Daniel Libeskind with Arup, 2001; and Zaha Hadid, 2000. Each Pavilion is sited on the Gallery's lawn for three months and the immediacy of the process – a maximum of six months from invitation to completion – provides a peerless model for commissioning architecture.

The Serpentine Gallery Poetry Marathon is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects. It is held in the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009, designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA. The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion Commission was conceived by Julia Peyton-Jones, Serpentine Gallery Director and Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes in 2000.

Head of Programmes: Sally Tallant
Public Programmes Curator: Nicola Lees
Public Programmes Assistants: Mia Jankowicz, Yesomi Umolu, Lucia Pietroiusti

Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA
http://www.serpentinegallery.org

HANS ULRICH OBRIST'S REVOLUTIONARY AND 'BRUTALLY EARLY CLUB' AT STARBUCKS IN LONDON

Dear all,

I would like to invite you all to a Brutally Early Club meeting on Thursday 15th, 6.30am at Starbucks, Notting Hill (96 Westbourne Grove, London W2 5RT)

All best,

Hans Ulrich Obrist