‘now interviews’ by hans ulrich obrist at the 12th international architecture biennale in venice, italy image © designboom

for this year’s venice architecture biennale, director and 2010 pritzker prize winner kazuyo sejima has invited contemporary art curator hans ulrich obrist to develop an exhibition that captures the diverse practices of all the participants involved in the international event. ‘now interviews’ is a project that obrist describes as ‘a portrait of an exhibition’. it aims to encourage viewers to pause and listen, one by one, for an insightful look into the methods and practice of each participants and their projects. all the interviews were publicly conducted on-site over a period of six days.

located in one of the halls of the old arsenale building, the setting has been designed by SANAA (kazuyo sejima and ryue nishizawa) and features rows and rows of monitors set in front ‘nextmaruni chairs‘, designed by the japanese architect duo in 2005. equipped with a solo headphone, the set up allows visitors to experience the films in an intimate and solitary manner.

we met up with zurich-born hans ulrich obrist, who has been an appreciator of the designboom interview series from its inception 10 years ago. obrist is not a newcomer to the medium, having conducted a series of ‘marathon’ interviews which includes his 24-hour project (2006) for the london serpentine gallery. an archive of the project was also shown in its entirety at the biennale.

hans ulrich obrist : now interviews at the venice architecture biennale 2010 - 2 names of participants image © designboom

hans ulrich obrist : now interviews at the venice architecture biennale 2010 - 3 exhibition space at the arsenale building image © designboom

hans ulrich obrist : now interviews at the venice architecture biennale 2010 - 4 (upper left) exhibition view (upper right) ryue nishizama and kazuyo sejima of SANAA (bottom left and right) participants listening to the interviews on headphones images © designboom

SANAA interview conducted by hans ulrich obrist

hans ulrich obrist : now interviews at the venice architecture biennale 2010 - 5 danish artist olafur eliasson getting interviewed by hans ulrich obrist images © designboom

interview of olafur eliasson

hans ulrich obrist : now interviews at the venice architecture biennale 2010 - 6 production shot image © designboom

hans ulrich obrist : now interviews at the venice architecture biennale 2010 - 7 hans ulrich obrist before the opening of the biennale portrait © designboom

full credits and acknowledgments:

project director: bettina korek producer: karen constine project manager: justin conner research coordinators: yun jie chung, alexandra weeks research assistants: karl kvaran, francesca colussi, josephine new, lindsay huse, coris evans, marina doritis production coordinator: maggie kayne videographer: piergiorgio grande editor: francesco marotta installation design: SANAA organized by: institute of the 21st century, pasadena arts council with the support of: foryourart, the kayne foundation, brenda r. potter, catherine and jeffrey soros with thanks to: sara adelman, sam chermayeff, bice curuiger, bradley fraser, sarah herda, maja hoffman, naoko kawachi, heather lindsey, janis minton, ryue nishizawa, ikeda satoshi, felicity d. scott, kevin conroy scott, kazuyo sejima, william sherak, frederic tuten, lorraine two, joseph varet, miriam walt, sarah williams