Hans Ulrich Obrist
In conversation with Rachel Rose

In Life in Progress, Hans Ulrich Obrist takes us through the formative experiences that made him into the art world legend he is today. As an inquisitive child in a small Swiss town in the 1970s, he found refuge in books; as a university student, he curated his first-ever exhibition—hosted in his kitchen and attended by no more than thirty people—and sent 250 postcards to strangers across the art world when he was stranded by an avalanche. Later, when he took over the Serpentine Galleries in London, he pushed the boundaries of what—and who—museums are for, by bringing art outside the four walls of the gallery.

Featuring encounters with giants of the art scene from Gerhard Richter and Louise Bourgeois to Etel Adnan, Édouard Glissant, and Agnes Varda, Life in Progress is an enchanting and deeply personal ode to art, the people who make it, and its capacity to change lives.

A book signing will follow the conversation.

Hans Ulrich Obrist is artistic director of Serpentine in London, and senior advisor at LUMA Arles. Prior to this, he was the curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show World Soup (The Kitchen Show) in 1991, he has curated more than 350 exhibitions. Obrist received the CCS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence in 2011, the International Folkwang Prize in 2015, and the inaugural The World Around Global Visionary Award in 2026. 

This event is made possible with support from ZEGNA.