Gabriel Orozco in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine

Gabriel Orozco was born in Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico in 1962. He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico and the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. Orozco gained his reputation in the early 1990s with his exploration of drawing, photography, sculpture, installation, and later extending to painting. His work blurs the boundaries of art with everyday realities and often balances complex geometry with organic materials and elements of chance.

In 2016 Orozco completed the permanent Orozco Garden at the South London Gallery, UK, after almost three years of work. A unique, sculptural work, it was his first garden design and features over fifty varieties of plants. In 2019, Orozco was invited to design and coordinate the master plan for Chapultepec Park, an ongoing environmental and cultural project to be finished in 2024. In February 2023 Orozco celebrated the completion of his Calzada flotante (Floating Causeway). Designed by the artist as a large-scale pedestrian-only bridge, it is Orozco’s first architectural public project in Mexico.

Orozco has had solo exhibitions at the Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1995 and 1998, Kunsthalle Zürich in 1996–97, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2000-01, the Serpentine Gallery, London in 2004, the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico in 2006, the Guggenheim Museum, New York in 2012, the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria in 2013, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), Japan in 2015, and the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado in 2016. In 2009 a major retrospective of his work opened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and traveled to the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland in 2010, the Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2010, and the Tate Modern, London in 2011. He has participated in the Venice Biennale (1993, 2003, 2005 and 2017), the Whitney Biennial (1997), Documenta X (1997) and XI (2002).

Orozco currently lives and works between Tokyo, Mexico City, New York, and Paris.

Artist Talks is a programme organised by the Fondation Beyeler and UBS, in which internationally renowned contemporary artists speak about their work.

The talks have an open, dynamic format and range from traditional artist talks to moderated conversations between artists and prominent figures from the art world. The Artist Talks are held at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen/Basel and at other art institutions in Europe, Asia and the USA. The talks will be recorded and can be followed at fondationbeyeler.ch/artisttalks.