Ways of Curating

Curation is the art of choosing. In Ways of Curating, Hans Ulrich Obrist suggests that curation is finding ever-wider application because of a feature of modern life impossible to ignore: the incredible proliferation of ideas, information, images and products. The result is a shift from the importance of merely procuring objects to their selection. Obrist traces curation from its pioneers in the first museums into the modern day. He considers his own activities as a curator, alongside examples of curation at work in the sciences, architecture and business. The result is a book about smart thinking and the importance of how we choose our ideas.
Drawing on his own experiences and inspirations - from staging his first exhibition in his tiny Zurich kitchen in 1986 to encounters and conversations with artists, exhibition makers and thinkers alive and dead - Hans Ulrich Obrist's Ways of Curating looks to inspire all those engaged in the creation of culture.
Moving from meetings with the artists who have inspired him (including Gerhard Richter and Gilbert and George) to the creation of the first public museums in the 18th century, recounting the practice of inspirational figures such as Diaghilev and Walter Hopps, skipping between exhibitions (his own and others), continents and centuries, Ways of Curating argues that curation is far from a static practice. Driven by curiosity, at its best it allows us to create the future.