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Life in Progress

By Hans Ulrich Obrist
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Brief Description
World-renowned curator Hans Ulrich Obrist for the first time grants a private view of how a near-death experience in young childhood catapulted him towards art and artists. When Hans Ulrich was a young boy, he was knocked down by a speeding car. Hospitalized for weeks, he... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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World-renowned curator Hans Ulrich Obrist for the first time grants a private view of how a near-death experience in young childhood catapulted him towards art and artists.

When Hans Ulrich was a young boy, he was knocked down by a speeding car. Hospitalized for weeks, he discovered the healing powers of art. Once he was able to travel again, he began to set out alone, on night trains, to meet artists in their studios across Europe.

From these early youthful encounters with the art world to his first exhibition in his Zurich kitchen, and even penning 250 postcards while trapped by an avalanche in Val Bregaglia, Obrist takes us through the formative experiences that made him.

Part unputdownable coming-of-age story, part tour de force of the contemporary art world, part user's manual on how to live driven by curiosity, conversation, and not least hope, Life in Progress is an enchanting ode to what engaging with art and the people around us boundlessly affords.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781802066982

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 October 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin

Contributors:

  • Translated by Dr David Watson

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 12.0mm

Width: 110.0mm

Height: 180.0mm

Weight: 115g

Pages: 160

Collections

Arts & Culture Biography & Memoir Hans Ulrich Obrist Musicians, Movie Stars & Creative Biographies Non-Fiction Non-Fiction Pre-Orders Penguin Books Pre-order Biographies Pre-order Books Pre-orders Pre-orders by Release Date

About the Author

Hans Ulrich Obrist is Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London. Prior to this, he was a curator at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show World Soup (The Kitchen Show) in 1991, he has curated more than 300 shows. Obrist's recent publications include Ways of Curating (2015), The Age of Earthquakes (2015), Lives of the Artists, Lives of Architects (2015), Mondialite (2017), Somewhere Totally Else (2018) and The Athens Dialogues (2018).

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