Art Lovers, Get Ready: Frieze London 2015 is coming!

In a world where new art fairs pop up every day, Frieze remains one the most awaited artistic events of the year. Next to Art Basel, the Armory Show, Arco or Fiac, Frieze London is among the leading contemporary art fairs that gives tempo to international collectors’ calendars today. 

Launched in 2003, Frieze London celebrates this year (from October 14th to 17th) its 13th anniversary and greats every year over 60,000 visitors. The fair focuses on living contemporary artists represented by the best British and international galleries – every year 500 galleries apply. It is hosted in a dedicated abd modern structure in the famous Regent’s Park. Its design has been conceived by Universal Design Studio and a group of talented architects, which ensures novelties at each edition. Frieze is divided into three sections: the main section, “Focus” -dedicated to young galleries and emerging artists with collective or solo shows especially put up for the Frieze- and “Live” -dedicated to performance-based artworks.

Even though the total sale figures of the fair are not released anymore, last year, the White Cube gallery sold his Damien Hirst entitled “Because I can’t have you I want you” for four million pounds in a few seconds after the fair opened; the Galerie Perrotin sold out all the pieces of KAWS it was exhibiting, and the Michael Werner Gallery’s booth with its works by Sigmar Polke (exhibited at the same time at the Tate Gallery) was completely taken over.

Artsper recommends you 5 works, projects, or lectures not to miss during this crazy Frieze weekend!

#1 JEREMY HERBERT

For the “Frieze Project”, Jeremy Herbert -multimedia artist as well as theatre set designer- has built an underground chamber under the fair. The space is travelled by wind and aims at evoking place and memory.

Herbert works with opera designers everywhere in the world, his most recent collaboration being “La Bianca Notta” by Beat Furrer in Hamburg (2015) and “Rodelinda” by Richard Jones at ENO (2014). Winner of the Nesta Award in 2004, Herbert also created installations and immersive performances with the Ruhr Triennale (2011) and Artangel (2003).

#2 THEA DJORDJADZE

Thea Djordjadze is an installation of mobile sculptures that will invade unexpected places of Frieze this year, incorporating the famous “Monstera Deliciosa” plant that inspired so many works by French painter Henri Matisse.

Referring to numerous images of this gigantic plant in Henri Matisse’ studio at the Regina Hotel in the 1940’s, Djordjadze plants have gone wild and taken even bigger proportions. The sculptures will punctuate the fair and melt in, hence following Matisse’s philosophy of art as a place for rest.

#3 XAVIER CHA- Abduct

For “Frieze Film”, Xavier Cha will present a short-movie in which he captures figures of American cinema giving in to their emotions, or to states of high psychological and physical tension. This movie continues to explore bodies, individuals and the way they express or repress their emotions. Xavier Cha’s work questions the expression of subjectivity in contemporary culture.

#4 BRUCE MCLEAN INTERVIEWS HIMSELF

For “Frieze Talks”, British artist Bruce McLean will give a lecture under the form of a performance on Thursday 16th at 5pm.

Bruce McLean is an avant-garde artist who studied at Saint-Martin School of Art against before standing up against its academic formalism. Since 1965, he stopped doing studio work and turned to temporary sculptures using ephemeral media such as water or creating performances in mockery of the art world. When the Tate Gallery proposed to organize a retrospective exhibition of his work, he ironically suggested to make it last one day.

#5 FRIEZE ARTIST AWARD: RACHEL ROSE

Winner of the Frieze Artist Award this year, American artist Rachel Rose has created a scale-model of the structure of the fair. She has installed a sound and lighting system inside to reproduce the visual and sound frequencies of animals living in the Regent’s Park. The installation aims at attracting the visitor’s attention on the different levels of communication and perception within the Park.

Rachel Rose lives and works in New York and already had solo shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art of New York, at the Castello di Rivoli of Turin and the Aspen Art Museum