Category: Curator/Museum Director
Nationality: Swiss/British
Last Year: 2

For the past two years the curatorial dynamo Obrist, a man whose activities in writing, interviewing, encouraging, cajoling, travelling and, somewhere in the midst of all that, putting together exhibitions and events, could never be contained within the concept of something as limiting as an ‘institution’, and has appeared on this list on his own. These days, the Serpentine is very much a centre for international discussions about contemporary art and its intersection with almost every facet of culture and everyday life – literature, science, technology, etc. Its talks (both formal and informal), marathons, architecture programmes, residencies (including the socially conscious Edgware Road Project) and various other activities have created an institution that’s far larger than the miniature former tea pavilion in which its public programmes are housed. Accordingly the gallery is set to expand next year, into a nearby former munitions warehouse. And accordingly Serpentine director Julia Peyton-Jones now rejoins Obrist, her co-director of exhibitions and programmes and director of international projects, who this year picked up a Bard College Award for Curatorial Excellence, on this list.