Curator and art historian Hans Ulrich Obrist has some advice about your address book
- Text by D'Arcy Doran
- Photography by Elliot Kennedy

#11 – Hans Ulrich Obrist
Hans Ulrich Obrist spent his teens travelling across Europe, sleeping on overnight trains and meeting every member of every art scene he came across. Along the way, he added so many business cards to his leather-bound address book that it wouldn’t hold together. When computers revolutionised the way he kept contacts, Obrist dispensed with the old book and threw himself into the digital age, but the concept hasn’t changed – when people are connected, creativity is sparked.
“The cyber introductions didn’t come out of the blue; I would connect people I met. I would connect someone I met on my travels with someone in another city when I would see a pattern. They’d be interested in the same thing. I always believed if you brought people together lots of things could happen.”
This is just a short excerpt from Huck’s Fiftieth Special, a collection of fifty personal stories from fifty inspiring lives.
Grab a copy now to read all fifty stories in full. Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss another issue.
Latest on Huck

Nxdia: “Poems became an escape for me”
What Made Me — In this series, we ask artists and rebels about the forces and experiences that shaped who they are. Today, it’s Egyptian-British alt-pop shapeshifter Nxdia.
Written by: Nxdia

Kathy Shorr’s splashy portraits inside limousines
The Ride of a Lifetime — Wanting to marry a love of cars and photography, Kathy Shorr worked as a limousine driver in the ’80s to use as a studio on wheels. Her new photobook explores her archive.
Written by: Miss Rosen

Lewd tales of live sex shows in ’80s Times Square
Peep Man — Before its LED-beaming modern refresh, the Manhattan plaza was a hotbed for seedy transgression. A new memoir revisits its red light district heyday.
Written by: Miss Rosen

In a world of noise, IC3PEAK are finding radicality in the quiet
Coming Home — Having once been held up as a symbol of Russian youth activism and rebellion, the experimental duo are now living in exile. Their latest album explores their new reality.
Written by: Isaac Muk

Are we steamrolling towards the apocalypse?
One second closer to midnight — While the rolling news cycle, intensifying climate crisis and rapidly advancing technology can make it feel as if the end days are upon us, newsletter columnist Emma Garland remembers that things have always been terrible, and that is a natural part of human life.
Written by: Emma Garland

Analogue Appreciation: Maria Teriaeva’s five pieces that remind her of home
From Sayan to Savoie — In an ever more digital, online world, we ask our favourite artists about their most cherished pieces of physical culture. First up, the Siberian-born, Paris-based composer and synthesist.
Written by: Maria Teriaeva