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FRIEZE 2008
Sheela Gowda. Ground Shift (Detail installation view), 2007, grinding stones, photography and drawing on wall, variable dimensions. Courtesy GALLERYSKY, Bangalore
The global Art Fair machine continues its global sojourn across North America, Asia and Europe as it makes its next stop October 16-19 in Regents Park London for the 2008 Frieze Art Fair. Marking the fair’s fifth year of operation and third year with primary sponsor, Deutsche Bank, fair organizers have assembled a three-day event that will not only provide collectors with some of the most desirable works available for purchase, but also offer visitors a glimpse of the latest and greatest creations by innovative artists from across the globe.
The Frieze Art Fair has enjoyed a relatively high level of attendance since its introduction in 2002; so much so, that the fair has begun limiting the number of tickets sold to the public. Being that over 80% of visitors are in fact not collectors, the fair’s founders and directors, Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, have in many ways treated the curatorial aspects of the fair as would a museum. Frieze 2008 has introduced a variety of different venues and outlets where visitors can enjoy high-quality exhibitions, keynote lectures and one-of-a-kind installations.
Creating a sort of transitory museum, emphasis this year has been on exhibiting the work originating in both the current stars in the art world, China and Russia, and those just on the horizon, Brazil and India. Fair curators hope to put together a series of events that highlights the direction in which artistic production is heading. Potential participating galleries are selected by a group of curators ensuring that together they create a cohesive experience and accurately represent the latest developments in contemporary art. More than one hundred and fifty galleries from across the globe were selected bring their latest offerings to the table, hoping to capture the attention of eager collectors.
The 2008 commissioned works exhibition known as Frieze Projects will bring together eleven artists invited to create one-of-a-kind unconventional pieces in association with Cartier. Curated by Neville Wakefield, the artists were asked to work around the loose theme of “engaging with the ecology of the fair and its surroundings and reflecting on the tensions between nature and culture, pollution and purity, economic gain and strategic loss.” Frieze Projects has hosted many recognized artists in the past including Richard Prince, Martha Rosler and Andrea Zittel. Of the eleven projects, one of the standouts will be American artist Cory Arcangel’s daring project wherein she distributed hundreds of chocolate bars to galleries which were denied entrance to Frieze, hiding a golden ticket inside one of them that would allow the gallery a stand at the fair, thereby altering the selection process and politics of the art fair. Other standout projects will be Danish artist Jeppe Hein’s installation involving animated trees, Polish artist Agnieszka Kurant’s performance piece involving trained talking parrots and American artist Bert Rodriguez’s foot massage booth. Presented alongside the Frieze Projects will be a site-specific installation by Cuban-born artist Wilfredo Prieto, winner of the 2008 Cartier award, which, apart from a monetary prize also gifts artists with a three-month residency at the Gasworks in London. Details of the piece created by Prieto will not be released until the opening of the fair
Frieze Talks will be a series of keynote lectures and panel discussions that hope to foment creative thinking amongst artists, collectors, museum directors, journalists, filmmakers and other members of the cultural community by addressing some of the current developments and challenges in the market. This year Frieze Talks include presentations by Boris Groys, Carsten Höller, Yoko Ono and Cosey Fanni Tutti, among others.
The Frieze directors have tapped the most democratic of mediums to bring to life the Frieze Film Project for 2008. Again curated by Neville Wakefield and entitled Road Movie, the experimental film will use the digital platform of YouTube to document not only the experience of the fair itself, but also issues surrounding the fair through an open invitation to artists and filmmakers. Participants were asked to submit films inspired by Cormac McCarty’s 2006 novel ‘The Road.’ Once all the films are submitted, they will be assembled together to create a fractal film. Road Movie will subsequently be shown on British television and will in turn be available for download and re-editing by anyone wishing to re-author the film, allowing for the possibility of an infinitely-transfiguring unrestricted motion picture.
Frieze Education is an off-site addition to the fair that will provide younger visitors with artist-led workshops that hope to introduce children 11-18 to contemporary art. For children 16-18 there will also be a series of panel discussions that invite participants to explore the themes and motives behind contemporary artistic production.
As art fairs, in general, become more and more the places where collectors and artists go to experience the new and innovative, the role of fair curators will become more and more important to the success of the fair. It would seem that less people come to socialize and keep up with their favorite galleries, and instead come perhaps to educate themselves and be part of experiences that will not be recreated outside of the fair. Curators and directors have picked up on this change and although there will be a great deal of market exchange at the fair, the directors of Frieze 2008 have understood that an offering on the scale of a global art fair must be well-rounded and diverse in order to attract the minds and eyes of the world at large.
Bryan Barcena is a graduate of the University of Michigan specializing in Art History and Latin American Studies and is the Assistant Director of Chelsea Galleria Wynwood, in Miami.
