In this two-part conversation, Hans Ulrich Obrist, art critic and curator of London's Serpentine Gallery, speaks about his upcoming work The Conversation Series. In the first half of the program, Obrist is interviewed by architect Enrique Walker, professor at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture. Obrist speaks to his mission to interview every living artist and cultural leader that piques his interest. To date he has recorded over 500 conversations. Walker is an experienced interviewer in his own right, having been publishing his own conversations with architects since the mid 1990s.
In the second half of the talk, Hans Ulrich Obrist retakes the reigns and interviews artist Paul Chan. Chan speaks to America's growing "sense of petrified unrest" in the face of international war, both cultural and literal. Chan's is a fascination with the aesthetic of recycling and appropriation, with a particular attraction to outdated and cranky technology. In 2007 Chan staged Waiting for Godot in New Orleans' barren South Ward, saying that the post-Katrina landscape reminded him of every staging of the play he had ever seen.
Presented by D.A.P. Distributed Art Publishers and USM Modular Furniture Showroom, and recorded on March 27, 2008.
