Hans Ulrich Obrist is artistic director of the Serpentine, London. He was previously 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. Photo: Tyler Mitchell
Precious Okoyomon is a Nigerian-American poet and artist who lives in New York. Their second book, But Did U Die?, will be copublished by Serpentine Galleries and Wonder Press in 2022. Okoyomon was a 2020 artist-in-residence at Luma Arles and received the Frieze Art Fair Artist Award in 2021.
Hans Ulrich ObristWhat is energy?
Precious OkoyomonThe love that keeps us all grounded.
HUODoes money corrupt art?
POAbsolutely.
HUOWhat is time?
POThe love that makes us free.
HUOWhat music are you listening to?
POJustin Bieber, Messiaen, Standing on the Corner.
HUOYour favorite color?
POThe color of pomegranates and the soft blue/pink when the sky and the sunset start to kiss and god comes to bless us.
HUOWhat was your first museum visit as a child?
POZaha Hadid’s Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.
HUOWhom are you working with/thinking with?
PORight now, I’m working and thinking with Toussaint Louverture through Édouard Glissant’s play about his life and the revolution he led, Monsieur Toussaint.
HUOAny miracles lately?
POMy miracle is the unending love of everyday life, the magnetic energy of love, a whirlwind of encounters, the wind kissing my face and brushing me anew; today I wrote a poem while walking my dog and it felt held, and held in the world itself.
HUOWhat is the role of titles?
POTo confuse, to trouble.
HUOWhat is your definition of art?
POEntangled organic movement and everyday life.
HUOWhat is your unrealized project?
POMy unrealized project is a new way of everyday life, a movement of errant roots, a forest, a series of communications, of rhizomes spreading information into the world, a new language created by an environment, a new way of breathing and an ability to breathe. I want to make a space for fragilization, a utopia to feel in! That manifests in what one might call an existential healing center, a place outside of time in the middle of a forest.
HUOWhat couldn’t you live without?
POChoosing love.
HUOWhat ought to change?
POEverything.
Artwork © Precious Okoyomon