Frieze! Live! Action!

Carsten Höller, Gartenkinder, 2014 at Gagosian Gallery. Photo by M-KOS

Text by Robert Beckinsale

Frieze London closed the 12th edition of its art fair last Saturday, in addition to the third iteration of Frieze Masters on the following day, both taking annual residence in the autumnal surroundings of Regent’s Park.

2014 saw Frieze London bring together over 160 international galleries from 25 countries, many of which noticeably breaking from the shackles of the ‘white cube’ paradigm with brightly coloured walls and floor decorations. Among the leaders of this trend, Gagosian and Sadie Coles HQ were hoarding large swaths of our attention span, from the entrance lobby. Gagosian’s Carsten Höller installation Gartenkinder (2014) invited children to play with works such as Dice (White Body, Black Dots)(2014) that were minded by qualified nannies instead of the expected colder model-type gallery assistants. Close by, Sadie Coles HQ attracted a somewhat older but just as rhapsodic audience with Angus Fairhurst’s red forest, while other galleries candy-coated our vision such as Lisson Gallery with Cory Arcangel’s rainbow carpet and Salon 92 adorned with yellow smiley faces on the wall. Hauser and Wirth also conspicuously invited Mark Wallinger to curate a remake of Lucien Freud’s disorderly studio, complete with the obligatory security guard, sleeping in a corner.

Sleeping guard at Hauser and Wirth. Photo by Robert Beckinsale

This year’s attempts to interact and build a creative experience effectively carried Frieze beyond the traditional art market niche, a direction visibly mirrored by the fair’s redesign of its general layout, to include wider corridors and more open spaces, courtesy of newly appointed Universal Design Studio. The LIVE section provided an innovative supplement to the 2014 fair with performance-based installations merging seamlessly along one another, to maintain a consistent level of energy throughout the venue. Six galleries were selected and matched with an equivalent number of artist performances, such as Does This Soup Taste Ambivalent by The United Brothers (Ei and Tomoo Arakawa) at Green Tea Gallery (Japan). The brothers offered free soup cooked by their mother using with certified vegetables grown in Fukushima (Japan), a region notorious for its radioactive contamination following the 2011 tsunami. Other performance focal points included Adam Linder’s interpretive dance involving found words, entitled Choreographic Service No2 at Silberkuppe (Berlin), and Shanzhai Biennial presented by Project Native Information (London), expertly posing as much as a luxury brand and real estate dealership. Moreover, two historic action-based sculptures by Franz Erhard Walther, Sehkanal (1. Werksatz No 46) (1968) and Winkel (1975) were re-enacted at Galerie Jocelyn Wolff.

Korakrit Arunanondchai transformed Carlos/Ishikawa booth into a nail parlor. Photo by Robert Beckinsale

Performances and performative installations also percolated over to other booths across the entire fair, to confirm these as a significant turn in the art world. Michael Werner Gallery re-staged James Lee Byars’ 1968 live piece Ten in a Hat, ten young people with bright pink hats connected in one single fabric strolling down the aisles. Focus section [dedicated to emerging galleries, 12 years or younger] introduced Villa Design Group at Mathew Gallery (Berlin) which simulated a film audition; Ante Timmermans’s work was assisted by five dancers at Barbara Seiler to delve into the philosophical tropes of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot; Venezuelan artist Sol Calero converted Laura Bartlett’s stand into an internet café while Korakrit Arunanondchai set nail parlour facilities within the space given to Carlos/Ishikawa. Correspondingly, the Frieze Projects section showcased the 1nversions series by Nick Mauss, featuring new daily ballet choreographies with music and texts by Kim Gordon.

Frieze Masters: The Collector at Helly Nahmad Gallery. Photo by Robert Beckinsale

The Frieze Sculpture Park was once more wonderfully in retreat from the hustle of the fair, and freely accessible even for non-ticket holders. If only for its sheer scale, the giant sculpture Small Lie by KAWS was one of the definite stars for this year, as were Martin Creed’s video Work no.732 and Gabriel De Santis’s Cant take my eyes of you, adding light hearted humour to the green expanse. The outside setting equally adds to Kristin Oppenheim’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night a haunting yet beautiful sound piece. Waking to the other side of Sculpture Park we found Frieze Masters, this younger fair section however aims to present works of a certain age, housed by over 120 international galleries. While counting more modern and classic styles, these smarter spaces were utterly impressive for the quality and provenance of works on display. Helly Nahmed Gallery for example re-mapped its booth to resemble a Paris 1960s art collector residence.

As always, Frieze Art Fair 2014 was exhilarating for the unadulterated quality and variety of art to experience in its totality. Encompassing of course the obligatory extra events and talks, the spectacular dwellings and not to mention the phenomenal capital transactions taking place behind closed doors that some of us can only dream of, the fair stand as a sure contender against Basel et al, to deliver an aesthetic experience benefiting all those taking the trouble to visit it in the flesh. For those that unfortunately didn’t have this chance, please stay tuned to M-KOS and feast your eyes on our soon-to-come Frieze 2014 slide show.

Sculpture Park: KAWS, Small Lie, 2014. Photo by Robert Beckinsale