Are You Here

Hans Ulrich Obrist is a marathon runner of daily discussions, conversations and exchanges with artists, architects, scientists, thinkers and writers. The elements of language that he accumulates offers a generic lexicon in which he draws alternately words or expressions that are as many vocal punctuations as exclamations of style. Are you here? compiles for the first time the stamp drawings that Hans Ulrich Obrist has composed for years, sometimes organized in clusters or lists, to flirt with concrete poetry. Sometimes rendered illegible, these leitmotivs come to black almost the whole of the page as a result of performances close to trances. This practice, which can be likened to stereotypy, is an outlet for the author, in which he uses, in the manner of a shaman, the elements of language that are his own. Are you here? is introduced by Etel Adnan, poet and artist, who gives us keys to reading this parallel and yet central practice in the construction of one of the most important curators of our time.