Frieze Film at Frieze Art Fair London 2015

Frieze Film at Frieze London 2015

Established in 2007, Frieze Film is a series of new films commissioned from established and emerging artists and premiered annually as part of Frieze Projects, Frieze London’s non-profit curated programme. This year, Frieze Film is curated by Nicola Lees and supported by Channel 4’s Random Acts, who will also broadcast the commissions.

The artists participating in Frieze Film 2015 are: Charles Atlas with Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener, Xavier Cha, Gery Georgieva and Thirteen Black Cats.

New York-based artist Xavier Cha presents a new film capturing actors’ efforts to battle conflicting emotions, held in tense states of physical and psychological discord, which offers a first look at the artist’s forthcoming solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. Produced in co-operation with Museum, the film continues Xavier Cha’s exploration of the body and subjectivity.

Bulgaria-born Gery Georgieva’s film focuses on the nightclubs of her native country’s chalga (pop-folk) scene, a musical genre with a contested relationship to national tradition. By contrasting footage from these venues in Bulgaria with parallel environments elsewhere, Gery Georgieva interrogates the configuration of cultural identities.

An iconic figure at the intersection between music, performance and film, Charles Atlas debuts a new dance-based work as a preview of a major ongoing long-form project. Choreographed by duo Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener and filmed at Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), New York, the film follows Charles Atlas’ influential, Channel 4-commissioned Hail the New Puritan (1985-6) in being specially tailored for broadcast.

Continuing the theme of collaboration, the research and production collective Thirteen Black Cats presents the first chapter of an ambitious, 56-part moving image work. Inspired by Chilean author Roberto Bolaño’s novel Antwerp (2002), the project invites filmmakers and artists worldwide to collaborate on a multi-authored film and video series.

Nicola Lees said: ‘I am very pleased to be partnering with EMPAC for the third year in a row and to continue a long-standing relationship with Random Acts, supporting Frieze Film’s aim to provide an opportunity for both established and emerging artists to engage with the challenging medium of broadcast. Together we are presenting four tremendous works that demonstrate a breadth of approaches to contemporary film-making.’

Pegah Farahmand, Editor, Random Acts, said: ‘At Channel 4 our goal has always been to showcase the world’s boldest and most thought provoking artist films, so we couldn’t have picked a more perfect partner than Frieze Film. They have consistently produced an incredibly diverse and striking collection of works, and we are proud to be a part of their movement as they push the boundaries of the form.’

Initiated in 2003, Frieze Projects is a unique non-profit commissioning platform for emerging, under-represented and innovative practices within one of the world’s leading contemporary art fairs.

Read also Frieze Projects at Frieze London Art Fair 2015

Frieze London website : http://friezelondon.com/

Frieze Projects at Frieze London 2015

Frieze Projects at Frieze London 2015

Frieze Projects will present seven new commissions at Frieze London 2015, with the support of the LUMA Foundation. This year’s programme is inspired by Frieze London’s temporary structure in The Regent’s Park and explores propositions for mobile architectures and alternative realities. Nicola Lees, Curator of Frieze Projects, has invited practitioners and collectives from disciplines including architecture, publishing and theatre design to transform, subvert, and interact with the social, structural and cultural dynamics of the fair. Initiated in 2003, Frieze Projects is an unique non-profit commissioning platform for emerging, under-represented and innovative practices within one of the world’s leading contemporary art fairs.

The Frieze Projects participants at Frieze London 2015 are: ÅYR, Lutz Bacher, castillo/corrales, Thea Djordjadze, Jeremy Herbert, Asad Raza and Rachel Rose, winner of the 2015 Frieze Artist Award.

Visitors will enter the fair through a dramatic installation by American conceptual artist Lutz Bacher, transforming the entrance corridor into an enigmatic environment using found objects from films sets. 

Intervening in the fair architecture, the collective ÅYR (Fabrizio Ballabio, Alessandro Bava, Luis Ortega Govela and Octave Perrault) will create a large-scale interactive installation in collaboration with cutting-edge interior design and technology companies.

Artist Jeremy Herbert will draw on his experience creating experimental theatre sets to build an underground chamber beneath the fair; and, through a door at the back of the fair bookshop, Asad Raza will create an evolving exhibition inspired by caves of worship of the Greek god Pan.

French collective castillo/corrales will bring their cooperative, inter-disciplinary ethos to a new iteration of the on-going project The Social Life of the Book, exploring the economy and circulation of printed matter within the art world. 

Georgian artist Thea Djordjadze will create a new series of mobile sculptures inspired by the Monstera deliciosa (so-called ‘Swiss cheese plants’) that populated Henri Matisse’s studio. 

Winner of the 2015 Frieze Artist Award, Rachel Rose, will respond to Frieze London’s specific site by creating a scale-model of the fair’s structure, inside which lighting and sound design will simulate the sonic and visual sense frequencies of different animals inhabiting The Regent’s Park.

Nicola Lees said: ‘This year’s projects are interacting with the fibre of Frieze London. The different projects begin with the fair as representational of temporary architectures and international mobility of the art world. They help us to expand our understanding of the practices and precedents that contribute to that world. In this way, theatrical sets, interior design, publishing and digital platforms can create alternative realities and experiences along with the disciplines of sculpture, performance and installation.’

Frieze Projects and the Frieze Artist Award are supported by the LUMA Foundation, established in 2004 to support the activities of independent artists and pioneers, as well as institutions working in the fields of art and photography, publishing, documentary and multimedia. The foundation specializes in challenging artistic projects combining a particular interest in environmental issues, human rights, education, and culture in the broadest sense.

Maja Hoffmann, President, LUMA Foundation said: ‘The LUMA Foundation is thrilled to be an active supporter over the next three years of the Frieze Artist Award and Frieze Projects, Frieze London’s non-profit commissioning programme. This partnership underlines LUMA’s commitment to produce, present and promote contemporary art projects in new and inspiring ways.’

Frieze London takes place from 14-17 October 2015. In 2015, Frieze London is sponsored by Deutsche Bank for the twelfth consecutive year, continuing a shared commitment to discovery.

friezelondon.com

Frieze New York 2013: Strong sales announced

Frieze New York 2013: "Buoyant Mood and High Quality Work Equal Strong Sales at Frieze New York"

The second edition of Frieze New York closed on Monday 13 May with galleries reporting high collector attendance and robust sales across all levels of the market. Many exhibitors also remarked on the fair’s maturity in its second year and expressed further admiration for the overall conception of the fair, its structure and setting. With 186 galleries from 32 countries, the second edition of Frieze New York, confirmed the fair’s place in the contemporary art calendar.

With visitor numbers in the region of 45,000, a number comparable with last year, the fair attracted international artists, collectors, curators and journalists, all of whom remarked upon the quality of the material brought by the galleries and the buoyant mood at the fair. Tickets sold out on the Sunday of the fair. Institutions throughout New York hosted numerous events to mark this year’s edition, with support for the fair felt across the city. 

Frieze New York takes place in a bespoke temporary structure, designed by Brooklyn-based architects SO – IL, on Randall’s Island, Manhattan. Frieze New York is sponsored by Deutsche Bank.

Galleries Responses

Thaddeus Ropac: ‘It was fantastic! We brought a significant Sigmar Polke and have sold it. We could not be more pleased, seeing a great number of American collectors but also Europeans too, which was a pleasant surprise.’

Lisa Spellman of 303 Gallery said: ‘Sales were fantastic. Collectors love this fair, it’s dynamic, high quality and offers an experience no other fair provides. We are really happy with the feedback, the sales, and the amount of curators and writers. It’s really a perfect fair.’

Luhring Augustine also met with success. Director, Lauren Wittels observed: ‘We came to the fair not knowing what to expect and were happily surprised by the wonderful reception. We were thrilled with the beautiful design of the tent, which allowed us to show new works by Tom Friedman in the best possible light to enthusiastic collectors, museum directors, curators, and the public. We had exceptional sales and sold all of the works within the first hour. It was a pleasure to participate in Frieze New York. We had a great experience.’

Iwan Wirth was also complimentary: ‘The second round of Frieze New York confirmed what we expected after our excellent experience in the inaugural year. Hauser & Wirth had a very strong week, greeting collectors and museum colleagues of the highest level. But most of all the fair was particularly fulfilling for our artists: Paul McCarthy, Matthew Day Jackson and Rashid Johnson. And, of course, it was fantastic for us to be able to share Paul McCarthy’s ‘Balloon Dog’ as part of the curated Sculpture Park in the landscape around the tent. We already look forward to next year.’

Glenn Scott Wright of Victoria Miro remarked, ‘I was struck by the high quality of material across the board. We brought work by artists with a museum presence in New York, for example Yayoi Kusama, and that quality of work sold very well. We’ve seen fantastic clients every day and the opening day was simply fantastic.’

Theresa Liang of Long March Space observed: ‘We had a very good experience. The fair has an open design that has enabled us to showcase our program. We took more space at the fair this year and that was a good decision as it allowed us to introduce the diversity of our artists to a wide audience. New York is one of the few cities that has a strong collector base and awareness of Chinese culture. Collectors, visitors and Museums are all well informed and that gives us the ideal context. We hoped that we would meet important new contacts here but it really has exceeded expectations.’ 

Young galleries in the Frame section of the fair also met with success. Frame is for galleries under six years old and is sponsored by Joe Fresh. 

Gabriella Giattino of Bureau said, ‘Frieze New York gave us the chance to give our artist Julia Rommel more visibility as we’ve had just one solo show with her in the gallery. The audience we met here more than achieved that and we were very successful selling all her works on the opening day. We met new collectors from all across the US: Florida, Texas, Los Angeles and New York and were able to place her pieces in the right hands.’

First time Frame exhibitor Leo Xu was enthusiastic: ‘My first Frieze experience has been exciting and inspiring. The solo booth has been positively received and we’ve had commercial success. Another result is that a new commissioned project is now under generation and exhibition possibilities in America are being discussed. This growing conversation is exactly what we came to New York to find. The best thing is that visitors to Frieze New York are keen to see the new ideas from young Chinese artists that work in new media and deal with social transformation. That is unparalleled!’

In Focus, for galleries under ten years old, there was also a good response with participants developing new relationships. 

Sylvia Kouvali of Rodeo remarked: ‘We chose to show Apostolos Georgiou, whose work has never been shown outside Greece before, and could not be more pleased with the response as we had really good sales with really good collectors, many of whom were new to us. For a relatively young gallery, like ourselves, it’s important to get broader recognition of who we are and what we do and here we’ve done that, we met everyone we could have wanted to – everyone came.’ 

Bruce Haines of Ancient and Modern could not have been more pleased: ‘We’re an unknown gallery in the US and we’ve brought an artist unknown in the US too, but the interest has been huge, from not only collectors but also our peer group. It’s been simply fantastic as I have made extraordinary sales and found new possibilities for our artists to exhibit. Everyone I have met has been a new person to the gallery, not just from the US but also across the Americas as a whole.’ 

Museum Groups 

With over 90 groups from the world’s major museums the fair had strong institutional attendance. Visiting museum groups included: Aspen Museum of Art; Bass Museum of Art; The Dallas Museum of Art; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gardens; LACMA; MACBA, Barcelona; Mamco, Geneva; MAXXI, Rome; MCA, Chicago; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Miami Art Museum; MoMA; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Centre Pompidou; Seattle Art Museum; Serpentine Gallery; SFMoMA; SITE Santa Fe; Tate; Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw; The Power Plant, Toronto; Wadsworth Atheneum; Walker Art Center; Whitechapel Gallery and the Whitney Museum of Art. 

Education

A new addition to the fair this year, the Frieze New York Education space was sponsored by Deutsche Bank and allowed public school classes and groups to further explore the fair through workshops. Over 600 children took part in the Frieze New York Education Program with over ten school groups from schools across all five New York boroughs. Taking place in a dedicated structure, the program for the space was devised by Free Arts NYC and 826NYC who together produced a dynamic context for students ranging from fourth to 12th grade, exploring notions of contemporary art and color.A creative documentation of the workshops and their results can be found on a dedicated Frieze Education tumblr page. 

Stand Prize 

The Frieze New York Stand Prize sponsored by Champagne Pommery was won by Galerie Elba Benitez who was awarded a prize of $15,000 for their solo showing of Carlos Bunga. The prize was judged by an international panel of curators: Juan A. Gaitán (Curator 8th Berlin Biennale); Naomi Beckwith (Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator, MCA Chicago); Jeffrey Grove (The Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Dallas Museum of Art).

Frieze New York Catalogue 2013

Supporters and Sponsors 

Michele Faissola, Head of Asset and Wealth Management of Deutsche Bank said of the fair: ‘The fantastic collection of art helped brighten New York this past weekend. The fair continues to be an impressive showcase of contemporary art from around the world, all of which was thoroughly enjoyed by our clients, employees and collectors. Frieze should be congratulated for organizing what has quickly become a mandatory event for artists and those who appreciate their talents.’

Further Information 

Information on Frieze Projects NY, the fair’s non-profit program is available online. Frieze Talks and Frieze Sounds is available for download from Frieze.com