LONDON.- The Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist is number one in the 15th edition of the ArtReview Power 100. The annual ranking of the contemporary art world’s most influential players hits newsstands on Thursday 20 October.

Hans Ulrich Obrist is artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London, but as ArtReview comments, “This official role tells you very little about what it is that this Swiss curator actually does. When Obrist last topped the Power 100, in 2009, the magazine quoted the opening point of the curatorial statement from his Beijing Mini-Marathon of ideas: ‘Don’t stop. We never stop.’ And Obrist singularly has not. The curator is famous for ignoring traditional constraints of both time (he works nearly constantly, and famously founded the Brutally Early Club, an opento-all discussion group that meets at 6.30am) and geographic place (he is in perpetual motion, giving talks and doing interviews at nearly every significant art event around the globe), and a single institution could never hope to house the full breadth of his activities.”

A considered analysis of what power means in the contemporary artworld at a particular time, the Power 100 is compiled each year in consultation with an invited international panel of writers, artists, curators and critics, with rankings based on an individual’s – or group’s – international influence over the production and dissemination of art and ideas within the artworld and beyond over the past 12 months. This year three artists appear in the top 10. Hito Steyerl, the German artist whose theoretical approach has gained her an international following, comes in at no 7; the German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans rises to no 9 and Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei takes the no 10 spot. The highest new entries to the list include Frances Morris, the newly appointed director of Tate Modern, who joins Nicholas Serota, the soon to be former director of Tate, at no 5; and feminist theorist Donna Haraway at no 43. Artists entering the list for the first time include young British artist Ed Atkins at no 50, Indian artists Raqs Media Collective at no 86, South African artist Zanele Muholi at no 95 and Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson at no 100.

As the most established ranking in the artworld, the Power 100 list and the accompanying biographies of the artists, museum directors, patrons, gallerists, curators and collectors featured on it provide a unique snapshot of the contemporary art scene as it is today. The Power 100 edition of ArtReview also offers an insight into the themes and trends that have emerged in compiling the list, with commentary not only on what the shifting nature of power currently is but also on what it could or should be. Contentious by its nature, the list is as much an invitation for debate as it is a definitive statement.

Founded in 1949, ArtReview is one of the world’s leading international contemporary art magazines, dedicated to expanding contemporary art’s audience and reach. Aimed at both a specialist and a general audience, the magazine and its sister publication, ArtReview Asia (launched in 2013), feature a mixture of criticism, reviews, commentary and analysis alongside commissioned artist projects and accompanying guides and supplements.