FRIEZE ART FAIR

The ninth edition for Frieze Art Fair, the leading international contemporary art fair, takes place in London’s Regent Park from 13-16 October 2011. The fair is sponsored by Deutsche Bank.

173 of the world’s most exciting contemporary art galleries representing 33 countries present new work by 1,000 of the world’s most innovative artists.

Here are the Frieze Highlights:

• • Frieze Projects is a unique programme of artists’ commissions realised annually by the fair, this year it is curated by Sarah McCrory and supported by the Emdash Foundation. This year’s artists are Bik Van der Pol, Pierre Huyghe, Christian Jankowski, Oliver Laric, LuckyPDF, Peles Empire, Laure Prouvost and Cara Tolomie. The winner of the Emdash Award 2011 is the video and performance artist Anahita Razmi who draws attention to how Tehran’s skyline was recently used by protestors after the Iranian presidential election. The point of departure of the video installation is a work by choreographer Trisha Brown, ‘Roofpiece’.

• •Frieze Films is a programme of artist films screened during the Frieze Art Fair, curated once again by Sarah McCrory. It includes five commissioned films by the artists Ed Atkins, Lutz Bacher, Anthea Hamilton, Judith Hopf and Katarina Zdjelar, which will be shown in the auditorium and will be previewed in the arts slot of Channel 4 during Frieze’s week.

• •Frieze Talks the line up of illustrious representatives of the arts — thusly composed: John Bock, Danie Buren, Adam Curtis, Alison Knowles and Taryn Simon — will hold panel debates in the auditorium. The lectures will be presented by Frieze Foundation and programmed by the editors of Frieze Magazine, Jennfer Higgie, Jörg Heiser and Dan Fox.

• •Sculpture Park offers a rare opportunity to see a significant group of international work that is addressed on a public scale. The wonderful setting of the English Gardens of Regent’s Park presents work by some of the most acclaimed international sculptors, these include Thomas Houseago, Claudia Fontes, Tom Friedman and Kiki Smith.

• •The Stand Prize — sponsored by Champagne Pommery judged by Tom Eccles, Karola Kraus, Stéphanie Trembley — chooses the most innovative gallery to receive the £10,000 prize. Nathalie Vranken of Vranken Pommery has awarded Gavin Brown’s enterprise.

• •Outset/Frieze Art Fair Fund to Benefit the Tate Collection this unique partnership enables Tate to buy important works at the fair for the national collection through the charity foundation Outset, focused on supporting new art. This years guest curators for the fund are José Roca and Adam Szymczyk. The initiative is also supported by Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts.

At the entrance to the fair, Scottish artist Cara Tolmie dances and spins in a revolving chair, creating a daily performance that ends with a lecture, weaving a narrative about space and territory, action and language.

You may enjoy extravagant experiences at the Frieze Art Fair, like at A Gentil Carioca’s stand, gallery from Rio de Janeiro with Laura Lama’s project: if you want a make-over to look older, then your chair awaits, along with the lights, mirrors, jars of unguents and a real makeup artist.

Outrageous is the alarming sculpture by Romanian artist Andra Ursuta: a life-size body cast showing the artist as an iron-age mummy, covered in a copious quantity of fake, glistening semen.

But probably the best and most bizarre venture you may embark yourself into is Michael Landy’s mulching machine. The 12 feet contraption with saws and doll’s heads judders into life when the chomping motor is turned on. While the process is going the volunteering visitor chooses a felt-tip colour (red, blue, green or black) and watches as a the person in charge at the machine attaches the selected pen to a page of a sketchbook. A foot touches a button on the floor, the machine whirrs into life, cogs roll, scissors snip, saws turn and cuddly toys wobble, producing a spirograph-like drawing. To do so you must offer your credit card for chewing up. Throughout this procedure, Landy stands anonymously in the queue of people listening to their reactions and inner battles with whether or not they can be separated from their credit cards, that being dropped into a wood chipper, are then spat out into a hundred pieces below. The prestigious Thomas Dane Gallery definitely won attention with Landy, considering the appeal related to the interactive bewildering crowd-pleaser that everyone remembers!
by Chiara Spagnoli