[7][8] Some of his early projects Obrist curated for the art initiative museum in progress in Vienna, for example the legendary exhibition museum in progress with Alighiero Boetti on board of Austrian Airlines in 1993 (using images from Boetti's “Airplanes” series, both in every in-flight magazine and as a free jigsaw puzzle, given to passengers),[9][10] Interventions in the daily newspaper Der Standard 1995 with artists like Christian Marclay, Lawrence Weiner, and Travelling Eye in the magazine Profil 1995/1996 with John Baldessari, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Gerhard Richter amongst others.

[11] Obrist has also been a jury member of the art project Safety Curtain, which museum in progress has been realizing at the Vienna State Opera with famous artists like Tauba Auerbach, David Hockney, Joan Jonas, Jeff Koons, Maria Lassnig, Rosemarie Trockel, Cy Twombly and Carrie Mae Weems since 1998.

[13] By 2005, The Guardian reported that Obrist had interviewed to succeed Philip Dodd as the director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.

[15] In addition to his role as the Serpentine Galleries, Obrist has been the international programs advisor to the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (since 2018)[16] and the artistic adviser to The Shed in New York (since 2018).

[17][18] While maintaining official curatorial positions, Obrist is also the co-founder of the Brutally Early Club in 2006,[19] a discussion group open to all that meets at Starbucks in London, Berlin, New York and Paris at 6:30 a.m.

In 2013, Obrist co-founded, with Simon Castets, the 89plus, an international, multi-platform research project with support from Google, conceived as a mapping of the "digitally native" generation of those born in or after 1989.

[23][24][25][26] In 2014, Obrist curated the Swiss Pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, where he presented Lucius Burckhardt and Cedric Price - A stroll through a fun palace;[6] the building was designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, and the program was developed with artists Liam Gillick, Philippe Parreno, Tino Sehgal and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster.

[27][28] In 2022, Obrist organized a Jota Mombaça performance staged on San Giacomo in Paludo to kick off the construction of an arts space operated by the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.

With the release, a total of 69 artists, architects, writers, film-makers, scientists, philosophers, musicians and performers share their unique experiences and frank insights.

To date, 28 books have been published, each containing a lengthy interview with cultural figures including John Baldessari, Zaha Hadid, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Yoko Ono, Robert Crumb and Rem Koolhaas.

A number of Obrist's interviews have also appeared in the Berlin culture magazine 032c, including those with artists Elaine Sturtevant and Richard Hamilton, historian Eric Hobsbawm, and structural engineer Cecil Balmond of Arup.

Notable participants included artists Etel Adnan, Ed Atkins, Jesse Darling, Gilbert & George, Katja Novitskova, Yoko Ono, Susan Hiller, Marguerite Humeau, Trevor Paglen, Cornelia Parker amongst notable model and actor Lily Cole and founder of The Whole Earth Catalog and co-founder of The Long Now Foundation Stewart Brand.

after his related 2023 publication,[36] sees him post handwritten notes from artists, writers, designers and other creatives in an effort to revive the art of handwriting in the digital age.

[38] In keeping with his desire to explore the world of art and view it as an open system, Obrist has long advocated a participatory model for his activities.

Individual instructions can open empty spaces for occupation and invoke possibilities for the interpretations and rephrasing of artworks in a totally free manner.