SerpenTine Gallery
24-Hour inTerview
MaraTHon: london
By Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist
Trolley, £9.90 (paperback)
Judging by the photos, only a handful of
dedicated people sat through all 24 hours of the
Interview Marathon at the Serpentine Pavilion in
July 2006, organised by the gallery’s then-new
supercurator Hans Ulrich Obrist and Pavilion
architect Rem Koolhaas. Yet the event was not The book is organised chronologically,
simply a masochistic exercise in endurance; logging when speakers came on, as well as some
according to Serpentine director Julia Peyton- general atmospheric markers, from the factual
Jones, it was, rather, ‘live research’ that ‘exposed ‘Refreshments: 12:29’ to the bathetic ‘Do you
the hidden and invisible layers of London’. But think we’ll last all night?’ A couple of longer texts
where did all this research end up? scarcely provide more substance. A functional but
It might reasonably be assumed that full- dry introduction by Peyton-Jones plods through
length transcripts of the 66 talks exist, given that the short history of the Serpentine Pavilion,
quotes from the speakers make up the main including the unrealised proposal by MVRDV
editorial content of the 256-page ‘flip book’ in 2004 that out-challenged the ambitions of
that, more than a year after the event, has been the gallery, while an interview with Koolhaas and
published to commemorate it. But it’s equally Obrist suggests a curatorial strategy of concept
possible that these short quotes were scribbled over content, when they describe the selection
directly from watching a video recording. Either criteria for the marathon as ‘basically whoever
way, this publication is hardly an educational was available from as many areas as we could
resource, far less an opportunity for those who think of’.
missed the event to find out what Britain’s The Serpentine website sells the book as a
creative and intellectual luminaries, from Richard creative response to the event, excitedly plugging
Hamilton to Doris Lessing, actually revealed it as ‘deliberately playful and tactile, giving a
about London. The smattering of quotes on sense of the speed, excitement and spontaneity
offer are, at best, left uncontextualised, at worst of the Marathon’. And indeed, in an artworld
just a random selection of kooky soundbites that that fetishises the documentation of even the
might as easily have ended up on a T-shirt. Or most inconsequential event, there is something
how about a Serpentine bag ironically adorned punkish about saying, if you weren’t there, tough
with Gilbert & George’s ‘We protest against the luck. But then why produce a publication at all?
rucksack. We are against rucksacks’? This flipbook clearly has only one raison d’être,
and that’s as a marketing tool for sponsors. It’s a
By Will Self, Illustrated by Ralph Steadman
shame that so many cultural institutions attempt
Bloomsbury, £17.99 (hardcover)
to mimic the corporate strategies of multinational
brands, but even more shameful to try and flog
marketing material to gallery punters.
Jennifer Thatcher
FEB_books.indd.indd 133 8/1/08 12:52:19
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