In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen Hans Ulrich Obrist: What business can learn from the art world
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Apr 15, 2026 
Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries and connector of artists and disciplines. He explores listening as the root of creativity. He champions serendipity over rigid planning. He discusses multi-sensory, tech-driven shows, long-term projects, AI in art, and how embedding artists and cross-discipline thinking can reshape organizations.
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Liberate Time For Long Conversations
- Build Long-Term, Attentive Relationships Through Studio Visits And Recordings.
- Obrist has recorded ~4,500 hours of recurring studio conversations, asking recurring questions like unrealized projects and advice to younger practitioners.
Ask Artists About Their Unrealized Projects
- Ask About Unrealized Projects To Reveal Creative Ambition.
- Obrist repeatedly asks artists about unrealized projects to surface utopias, censored ideas, and self-censored dreams that often yield the most interesting work.
Working To Recreate Black Mountain College
- The Black Mountain College Model Is An Ongoing Unrealized Project.
- Obrist wants a new interdisciplinary school like Black Mountain College and is working with Lorena Powell Jobs to transform the San Francisco Art Institute into such a future school.
