Hans Ulrich Obrist to host an interview mini-marathon at Expo Chicago 2018

Hans Ulrich Obrist, the Swiss-born curator, art historian, co-director of London’s Serpentine Galleries, and esteemed talker is bringing his interview marathon to Expo Chicago next year. Creative Chicago: An Interview Marathon, to be held in the grand ballroom of Navy Pier on 29 September 2018 won’t be the 24-hour polyphonic platform (as it has been described by Obrist) that purists might desire, but it will last four hours. The artist Theaster Gates and architect Jeanne Gang are two of the confirmed participants so far. Part of Art Design Chicago, the Terra Foundation for American Art Design’s multi-institutional initiative, the event will be managed by the Chicago Humanities Festival. Alison Cuddy, the festival’s artistic director, said she will be looking for a kaleidoscope of voices who can speak to the idea of what Chicago is becoming: “What is the future and who is creating that future?” Obrist’s archives are housed at Chicago’s School of the Art Institute and he credits the late Studs Terkel, the beloved local broadcaster and author, for teaching him the art of interviewing. “So Hans as this world famous creator actually has all these deep connections to Chicago … many creative roads lead back to our city,” Cuddy said.