Shooting Gallery: The Problems of Photographic Representation
Thursday 13 October 1.30pm
The relationship between photojournalism and ‘art photography’ is often strained and ambiguous. How do contemporary artists accept or reject the strategies of reportage, and to what effect?
- Adam Broomberg (Artist, London)
- Oliver Chanarin (Artist, London)
- Taryn Simon (Artist, New York)
- Chair: Christy Lange (Writer and Associate Editor, frieze)
The Luxury of Incommensurability
Thursday 13 October 4.30pm
Unlike politics and writing, art can hold in suspension different, even conflicting ideas, feelings and histories, without forcing us to choose between them. This capacity for incommensurability allows for experiences not socially recognised - as yet not named. Siegel presents a paper arguing that the most exciting form this takes today is painting, in which abstraction and representation intersect and interfere with each other, continuing the secret and long history of modern painting, obscured by decades of ideologically rigid art criticism.
- Katy Siegel (Edior in Chief, Art Journal, Contributing Editor, Artforum and Professor of Art History, Hunter College, New York)
Do you speak English?
Friday 14 October 1.30pm
English has become the lingua franca of the art world, spoken by people of many nationalities from around the globe. Whose English then are we speaking, and how does its ambiguous status affect what we say?
- Jennifer Allen (Writer, Lecturer and Editor, frieze d/e, Berlin)
- Nana Oforiatta-Ayim (Writer, Filmmaker and Cultural Historian, London)
- Adam Szymczyk (Director and Chief Curator, Kunsthalle, Basel)
- Chair: Vincenzo Latronico (Writer and Translator, Milan)
Daniel Buren
Friday 14 October 4.30pm
In a career spanning 40 years, Daniel Buren has created art in public spaces, written critical texts and collaborated with artists from different generations. His work is always site specific and characterised by its use of contrasting coloured vertical stripes, most notably Two Planes (1986) for the courtyard of the Palais Royal, Paris. In 2011 he created work for Turner Contemporary Margate and was honoured with a retrospective at the Centre Pompidou-Metz. For Frieze Talks, Buren speaks about his approach to his work’s complex relationship to the space in which it is presented.
- Daniel Buren (Artist, lives and works in situ)
John Bock in conversation with Franz Erhard Walther
Saturday 15 october 1.30pm
Since the early 1960s, Franz Erhard Walther has explored the possibilities of objects and images that prompt viewers to do something other than just look. Walther was an inspirational teacher at Hamburg’s Hochschule für Bildende Künste, and John Bock was one of his students. Bock’s work - in the spirit of Walther’s - transforms action, speech and everyday materials into complex installations. The two artists discuss the potential of doing things with - and amongst - art.
Adam Curtis
Saturday 15 October 4.30pm
Adam Curtis is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker who employs archival footage to explore ideas ranging from the interrelationship of science, politics and power, to the influence of psychology on public relations and advertising. His work includes The Power of Nightmares, The Century of the Self and The Mayfair Set. His most recent television series - All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace - examines, in his words, ‘how the way humans see the world has been colonised by machine ideas.’
- Adam Curtis (Documentarian and Writer, London)
On Television
Sunday 16 October 1.30pm
Considering its engagement with visual culture, why hasn’t art responded to the rise of the complex television of the HBO era? Although many artists watch everything from Breaking Bad to 30 Rock, art tends to engage with trash television, not high-quality productions such as The Wire or Mad Men. Why, despite its huge cultural significance, does television not have a greater influence on contemporary art?
- Jonty Claypole (Executive Producer, BBC Arts, London)
- Melanie Gilligan (Artist, London)
- Timotheus Vermeulen (Writer and Lecturer, Groningen)
- Chair: Aaron Schuster (Philosopher and Writer, Berlin)
Alison Knowles
Sunday 16 October 4pm
Alison Knowles was a founder member of Fluxus, the avant-garde group formed in 1962. She is known for her soundworks, installations, performances and publications, including many years of experimenting with the sculptural potential of the book - a reduced, minimal form of performance as well as explorations of live and recorded sound. For Frieze Talks she presents a series of short performance.
- Alison Knowles (Artist, New York)
Who Owns Images?
12pm, Thursday 14 October
In today’s digital world, even the most basic laptop or phone comes with tools allowing us to process pictures, video or sound. How do changes in technology affect the ownership of images?
- Geeta Dayal (Arts, music and technology Writer, USA)
- Thomas Demand (Artist, Germany)
- Kazys Varnelis (Director of the Network Architecture Lab, Columbia University, New York, USA)
- Chair: Sam Thorne (Associate Editor, frieze)
What’s So Funny?
2.30pm, Thursday 14 October
Artists who use humour respond to the questions: ‘Are art and comedy a great double act or the odd couple? What are the uses of humour in artistic practice?’
- Nathaniel Mellors (Artist, UK and the Netherlands)
- Aleksandra Mir (Artist, in transit)
- Roee Rosen (Artist and Writer, Israel)
- Olav Westphalen (Artist, Sweden)
Wolfgang Tillmans
5pm, Thursday 14 October
For 20 years Tillmans’ photography has been a sustained meditation on observation and perception, politics and abstraction. Winner of the Turner Prize in 2000, recent exhibitions include the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin in 2008 and London’s Serpentine Gallery this year. In 2009 his work was included in ‘Making Worlds’ at the 53rd Venice Biennale.
- Wolfgang Tillmans (Artist, UK)
Frieze Projects: Jeffrey Vallance
12pm, Friday 15 October
For his commission for Frieze Projects, artist Vallance presented a panel discussion featuring five mediums each channeling the spirits of famous artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock and Leonardo da Vinci.The artists were asked questions on the role of art in the afterworld, and their opinions on the art market in the living world. The panel will open to audience questions at the end of the discussion.
- Jeffrey Vallance (Artist, USA)
Julie Ault in conversation with Bart van der Heide
2.30pm, Friday 15 October
Van der Heide discussed the aesthetic and political legacy of the legendary New York-based art collaborative Group Material, with co-founder Julie Ault.
- Julie Ault (Artist and Writer, USA)
- Bart van der Heide (Director and Curator, Kunstverein München, Germany)
Amar Kanwar
5pm, Friday 15 October
Kanwar’s films and installations are multi-layered contemporary experiences connecting intimate personal histories with the wider politics of power, violence, sexuality and justice. Characterised by a distinctly lyrical approach to the social and political, Kanwar’s work has been presented in film festivals and museums. He has participated in documenta 11 and documenta 12, Kassel, Germany and is also the recipient of the first Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art, Norway.
- Amar Kanwar (Artist, India)
Reference vs Reverence
12pm, Saturday 16 October
Many of the late-born children of modernism are creating an art caught in a web of historic references. Could reverence, summoning the ghosts and uncharted potentials of unavowed histories, be a critical counter-model?
- Paulina Olowska (Artist, Poland)
- Silke Otto-Knapp (Artist, UK)
- Mathias Poledna (Artist, USA)
- Chair: Jan Verwoert (Art Historian and Critic, Germany; Contributing Editor frieze)
Susan Hiller in conversation with John Welchman
2.30pm, Saturday 16 October
In anticipation of Hiller’s upcoming retrospective at Tate Britain, the American, London-based artist discussed with the California-based, British art historian, the transatlantic conundrums of conceptualism, and the role of humour and the unconscious in the creative act.
- Susan Hiller (Artist, UK)
- John Welchman (Professor of Modern Art History, University of California, USA)
Bridget Riley in conversation with Michael Bracewell
5pm, Saturday 16 October
Novelist, essayist and cultural commentator Bracewell spoke to artist Riley about the evolution of her ground-breaking work from the 1960s to the present.
- Bridget Riley (Artist, UK)
- Michael Bracewell (Writer, Novelist and Curator, UK)
Exhibition making as Activism – Whose Politics?
12pm, Sunday 17 October
A myriad of approaches are taken by artists, writers and curators whose work responds to complex social issues and political situations. To what extent do the political and personal intersect? Can art be effective activism and vice versa?
- Jeremy Deller (Artist, UK)
- Galit Eilat (Writer, Curator and Founding Director of The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon, Israel)
- Emily Roysdon (Artist and Writer, USA)
- Chair: Negar Azimi (Senior Editor, Bidoun magazine)
Ramin Bahrani in conversation with Bert Rebhandl
4pm, Sunday 17 October
Hailed ‘director of the decade’ (Roger Ebert ), Bahrani has eloquently told the story of US immigrants in films such as Chop Shop (2007) and Goodbye Solo (2008). Born to Iranian parents, he is at the forefront of ‘Neo-Neo Realism’. In conversation with Rebhandl, Bahrani discussed the ‘neo’ in realism, and how its limits can be pushed.
- Ramin Bahrani (Filmmaker, USA)
- Bert Rebhandl (Film and Visual Arts Critic, Germany)
Platitudes about Contemporary Art – Popular and Provocative, but True?
12pm, Thursday 15 October
This panel argued against three of the most common criticisms and truisms leveled at contemporary art: that it is elitist, confusing and irrelevant; that it is peddled by unskilled charlatans conning the general public, and that poor artists will be more inventive and radical because they are not corrupted by the market.
- Roger Hiorns (Artist, shortlisted for 2009 Turner Prize)
- Kathrin Rhomberg (Curator of the 6 berlin biennial, 2010)
- Adrian Searle (Curator, writer, and chief art critic at the Guardian)
- Chair: Tom Morton (Curator, Hayward Gallery, London)
John Baldessari in conversation with Matthew Higgs
2.30pm, Thursday 15 October
The subject of a major retrospective at Tate Modern, London, renowned artist John Baldessari answered questions put to him by the readers of frieze magazine.
- John Baldessari (Artist)
- Matthew Higgs (Artist and Director of White Columns, New York)
Scenes from a Marriage: Have Art and Theory Drifted Apart?
12pm, Friday 16 October
Since the 1980s, when buzzwords like ‘semiotics’ were prevalent in the art world, theory has played an important role in the interpretation, and making, of art. Yet, after all these years, has contemporary art really influenced the way philosophers think? And is theory still relevant to today’s artists?
- Simon Critchley (Chair & Professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research, New York)
- Robert Storr (Artist, Critic, Curator and Dean of Yale School of Art)
- Barbara Bloom (Artist)
- Chair: Jörg Heiser (Co-editor, frieze)
Art and the State: Back to New Deal Funding?
2.30pm, Friday 16 October
What are the pros and cons of state-funded art and cultural production at a moment of severe economic crisis?
- DD Guttenplan (Writer and historian)
- W.A.G.E (Arts Activist Group)
- Christoph Thun-Hohenstein (Strategic Managing Director of departure, Vienna; former Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum)
- Yu Yeon Kim (Independent curator)
- Chair: Jenni Lomax (Director, Camden Arts Centre)
In Theory: Sylvère Lotringer
5pm, Friday 16 October
Since the 1970s, Sylvère Lotringer (General Editor, Semiotext(e) and Professor of French literature and philosophy at Columbia University, New York) has been at the forefront of French Theory in the US. He reflected on the current relationship between art and theory.
Nostalgia: What’s the Role of the Past in Fashioning the Future?
12pm, Saturday 17 October
Cultural production today is dominated by images and sounds of the past. Is nostalgia always necessarily conservative and retrogressive, or can it be harnessed as a progressive force?
- Owen Hatherley (Writer, architecture critic, and blogger)
- Joanna Mytkowska (Director, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw)
- Matthew Brannon (Artist)
- Chair: Dan Fox (Senior Editor, frieze)
The Art of Absence: Brian Dillon in Conversation with Marie Darrieussecq
2.30pm, Saturday 17 October
Acclaimed French novelist Marie Darrieussecq talked about the names that have influenced her radical approaches to writing and storytelling.
- Brian Dillon (Writer and UK editor of Cabinet)
- Marie Darrieussecq (Writer and novelist)
A Talk: Agnès Varda
5pm, Saturday 17 October
In a career that has spanned over 50 years, Agnès Varda, one of the most original and renowned of the French ‘nouvelle vague’ directors, has made over 40 innovative feature films and documentaries. The Beaches of Agnès, won both a 2009 César and a Critics’ Union award for best film. She talked about her extraordinary life and work, from cinema to art.
CAC Vilnius presents: Memories, Monoliths, Monsters?
12pm, Sunday 18 October
This panel explored the legacies and potential of monuments and public sculptures. The speakers addressed the types of histories and collective memory with which these objects interact.
- Mark Godfrey (Curator, Tate Modern)
- Edit András (Art historian and critic)
- Marko Luliç (Artist)
- Chair: Simon Rees (Curator, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius)
Hella Jongerius in conversation with Eugenia Bell
2.30pm, Sunday 18 October
Working between craft, art and technology, Hella Jongerius spoke about the evolution of her innovative practice.
- Hella Jongerius (Designer)
- Eugenia Bell (Design Editor, frieze)
Frieze Projects: Mike Bouchet
5pm, Sunday 18 October
For his commission, Sell and Destroy: Redrawing the Bottom Line, Mike Bouchet presented a motivational speaker for the exhibitors and public of Frieze Art Fair. Alex MacPhail is an expert at empowering large audiences to master their motivation and achieve their full potential, both on the day and long into the future.
The China Experience
12pm, Thursday 16 October 2008
Carol Yinghua Lu (Writer, Curator and Contributing Editor, frieze) brought together three key players in Chinese contemporary art to discuss the impact of the country’s political, financial and creative conditions on its artists, critics, curators and gallerists. With so much attention focused on China, the panel examined the structures of its art scene and looks at how it compares to Western models.
- Chair: Carol Yinghua Lu (Writer, Curator and Contributing Editor, frieze)
- Weng Ling (curator and founder of the Beijing Center for the Arts)
- Zheng Shengtian (Yishu, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art)
- Karen Smith (Writer, Curator and Chinese Contemporary Art Specialist)
A Personal Grammar of Means
3pm, Thursday 16 October 2008
Artist Marc Camille Chaimowicz in conversation with writer and art historian Roger Cook.
The Aesthetic Responsibility
5pm, Thursday 16 October 2008
Writer, curator and philosopher Boris Groys gave a keynote lecture on how design today functions as a leading medium of self-revelation and self-positioning in public space. Arguing that design has acquired a new ethical dimension, he contended that where there was once religion, there is now design.
It’s About Time
12pm, Friday 17 October 2008
Chaired by Jennifer Allen (Writer and Critic), this discussion explored the recent emphasis on temporality in art exhibitions. While considering historical and philosophical precedents, the panel looked at how and why time has become a tool for curators, and questioned the political implications of such an approach.
- Chair: Jennifer Allen (Writer and Critic)
- Carsten Höller (Artist)
- Elena Filipovic (Writer and Independent Curator)
- Peter Osborne (Professor and Director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University, London)
The First Pictures I Enjoyed
3pm, Friday 17 October 2008
Writer and artist Alasdair Gray in conversation with novelist and artist Tom McCarthy.
PASSAGES OF LIGHT
5pm, Friday 17 October 2008
Artist Yoko Ono presented a keynote lecture, demonstrating the continued importance of the performative practices and engagement with audiences that she has pursued since the 1960s.
In Memory of the Image
12pm, Saturday 18 October 2008
This panel chaired by Stuart Comer (Curator: Film, Tate Modern) looked at the proliferation, immediacy and increasing mobility of images. If we have reached the demise of representation, how do we talk about the image? What are the implications for rethinking terms such as documentary, form and abstraction?
- Chair: Stuart Comer (Curator: Film, Tate Modern)
- George Baker (Associate Professor of Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles and editor at October)
- Morgan Fisher (Artist and Filmmaker)
- Hito Steyerl (Filmmaker and Author)
Transhumance
3pm, Saturday 18 October 2008
Raqs Media Collective performed a selection of reports and conversations gathered from their nomadic practices as artists, curators and theorists.
Something for Everyone
5pm, Saturday 18 October 2008
Artist, writer, architect, educator, ecologist and radical gardener Fritz Haeg gave a keynote talk exploring populist projects, insular bohemia, activist art, passive entertainment, networked communication, broadcast media, social strategies of isolation, and potential roles for today’s artist in a fractured society.
SLIDESHOW - images from ‘Something for Everyone’
Is the Underground Over?
12pm, Sunday 19 October 2008
A conversation chaired by music critic Simon Reynolds examined how the notion of subculture has become outmoded through the overexposure afforded by the internet and the media’s rapid assimilation of the marginal. This panel also surveyed the past, present and future of unpopular culture and explores the possibility of alternatives to ‘alternative’.
- Chair: Simon Reynolds (Music critic)
- Cosey Fanni Tutti (Artist)
- Penny Martin (Rootstein Hopkins Chair of Fashion Imagery, London College of Fashion)
- Claire Titley (Music Promoter, ‘Upset the Rhythm’)
The Culture of Denial
4pm, Sunday 19 October 2008
Influential writer, broadcaster and lecturer Judith Williamson gave a keynote lecture on the skewed relationship between what we know and what we do, examining how the gulf between knowledge and behaviour shapes contemporary culture.
Radical Chic: The marketing of culture, the culture of marketing
Sunday 19th October
If convergence culture now dominates and everyone is a ‘Creative’, how do artists position themselves? Leading art and media professionals discuss the culture of marketing and the marketing of culture.
- Kim Gehrig (UK, Art Director at Mother)
- Lucy McKenzie (UK, Artist)
- Jan Verwoert (D, Art Critic)
- Peter York (UK, Writer, Author, Broadcaster and Management Consultant)
- Chair: Michael Bracewell (UK, Writer, Author, Broadcaster and Management Consultant)
Empathy and Criticality
Sunday 19 October
How should one respond to being affected by art? What is at stake for the critic? Leading critics discuss writing with the emotional engagement of the enthusiastic fan or with the rational distance of the dispassionate observer.
- Adrian Searle (UK, Chief Art Critic at the Guardian)
- Katy Siegel (USA, Art Critic and a Contributing Editor at Artforum)
- Roberta Smith (USA, Art Critic at the New York Times)
- Chair: Jörg Heiser (D, Art Critic and Associate Editor of frieze)
The International Curator
Saturday 18 October
Aesthetic managers? Creative ambassadors? Cultural entrepreneurs? Leading international curators discuss their role within the production and dissemination of contemporary art.
- Massimiliano Gioni (Artistic Director of the Nicola Trussadi Foundation)
- Laura Hoptman(USA, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Carnegie Museum of Art)
- Ralph Rugoff(USA, Director of CCA Wattis Institute for Contmeporary Arts)
- Chair: Daniel Birnbaum(S, Director of Portikus)
The Museum as Sculpture
Friday 17 October
Do spectacular new museum buildings overshadow the art or do they determine the shape of art to come? Leading professionals discuss the interrelationship of art and architecture.
- David Adjaye (UK, Architect and Principal of Adjaye/Associates)
- Wilfried Kühn (D, Architect and Partner in Kühn Malvezzi Projects)
- Chair: Deyan Sudjic (UK, Architecture Critic and Editor of Domus)
The Museum as Sculpture
Friday 17 October
Do spectacular new museum buildings overshadow the art or do they determine the shape of art to come? Leading professionals discuss the interrelationship of art and architecture.
- David Adjaye (UK, Architect and Principal of Adjaye/Associates)
- Wilfried Kühn(D, Architect and Partner in Kühn Malvezzi Projects)
- Chair: Deyan Sudjic(UK, Architecture Critic and Editor of Domus)
Contemporary Collecting
Friday 17 October
What are the unique responsibilities of those who collect contemporary art and what are their guiding passions? Leading international collectors discuss their collections, followed by questions from the Chair.
- Kenneth L. Freed (USA, Collector)
- Ingvild Goetz (D, Collector)
- Andrew Hale (UK, Collector)
- Chair: Katerina Gregos (GR, Independent Curator and Art Critic)
Where is Adventure? What is Culture?
Sunday 17 October
A discussion of the relationship of art to entertainment, touching on the comedic, being popular and failing miserably.
- Trisha Donnelly (Artist)
- Christian Jankowski (Artist)
- David Robbins (Writer & Artist)
- Nancy Spector (Curator of Contemporary Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum)
- Chair: Matthew Higgs (Curator, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts)
The Psychology of Collecting
Sunday 17 October
Is collecting an irrational act guided by compulsion and desire? What are the use of objects? What are the motivations behind making, collecting, curating and criticizing art? A discussion of the psychology of collecting and the politics of taste.
- Hilary Rubenstein (Psychologist)
- Eric Troncy (Art Critic and Director, Le Consortium, Dijon)
- Haim Steinbach (Artist)
- Chair: Alice Rawsthorn (Director, Design Museum)
Art In Public
Saturday 16 October
A discussion of the production of art with a specific focus on commissioning large-scale public art projects. What is at stake for the artist? The producer? The wider community?
- Jeremy Deller (Artist)
- Yvonne Force Villareal (Art Producer and Co-founder, Art Production Fund)
- James Lingwood (Co-Director, Artangel and Independent Curator)
- Per Gunnar Tverbakk (Co-curator, Nordic Biennale Momentum 04 and Project Leader, Artistic Interruptions, Nordland)
- Chair: Claire Bishop (Art Critic and Historian)
New Internationalism
Saturday 16 October
Does the rapid development of new art centres encourage greater cultural diversity, or has it resulted in a new international orthodoxy? How can discourse keep up with information? Leading art professionals discuss.
- Vasif Kortun (Director, Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, and Co-curator 9th International Istanbul Biennial, 2005)
- Chus Martinez (Art Critic and Curator, sala rekalde)
- Neil Mulholland (Lecturer in Contemporary Art and Theory, Centre for Visual & Cultural Studies, Edinburgh College of Art)
- Adam Szymczyk (Director, Kunsthalle Basel)
- Chair:Alex Farquharson (Art Critic and Co-curator, British Art Show 6)
New Internationalism
Saturday 16 October
Does the rapid development of new art centres encourage greater cultural diversity, or has it resulted in a new international orthodoxy? How can discourse keep up with information? Leading art professionals discuss.
- Vasif Kortun(Director, Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, and Co-curator 9th International Istanbul Biennial, 2005)
- Chus Martinez(Art Critic and Curator, sala rekalde)
- Neil Mulholland(Lecturer in Contemporary Art and Theory, Centre for Visual & Cultural Studies, Edinburgh College of Art)
- Adam Szymczyk(Director, Kunsthalle Basel)
- Chair:Alex Farquharson(Art Critic and Co-curator, British Art Show 6)
The Future Museum
Friday 15 October
How does the construction of the buildings that house art effect the way museums function? What is the role of the museum within local and international fields? Can museum programming embrace both experimentation and conservation? What is the vision for the museum of the future?
- Charles Esche (Director, Van Abbemuseum and Co-editor of Afterall)
- Yuko Hasegawa (Chief Curator, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art)
- Beatrix Ruf (Director/Curator, Kunsthalle Zürich)
- Igor Zabel (Curator, Moderna Galerija Ljubljana)
- Chair: Richard Flood (Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Walker Art Center)
The Future Museum
Friday 15 October
How does the construction of the buildings that house art effect the way museums function? What is the role of the museum within local and international fields? Can museum programming embrace both experimentation and conservation? What is the vision for the museum of the future?
- Charles Esche (Director, Van Abbemuseum and Co-editor of Afterall)
- Yuko Hasegawa(Chief Curator, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art)
- Beatrix Ruf(Director/Curator, Kunsthalle Zürich)
- Igor Zabel(Curator, Moderna Galerija Ljubljana)
- Chair:http://foundation.erskinedesign.com/biography/profile/richard_flood/" >Richard Flood (Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Walker Art Center)
Contemporary Collecting
Friday 15 October
What are the motivations and responsibilities behind building a contemporary art collection? From public foundations to private individuals, the panelists discuss their collections followed by questions from the chair.
- Alistair Hicks (Art Advisor to Deutsche Bank AG)
- Harald Falckenberg (Collector)
- Susan May (Head of Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery)
- John A. Smith (Collector)
- Chair: Andrew Renton (Director, Curatorial Programme, Goldsmiths' College and Columnist, Evening Standard)
Art, Politics and Popularity
Sunday 23 October
Jacques Rancière, renowned philosopher, and Emeritus Professor, University of Paris VIII, whose most recent publication, The Politics of Aesthetics, has won critical acclaim, discussed aesthetics and politics with Brian Dillon, Writer, Art Critic and frieze Columnist. If art is political, what is its constituency? How have modern and contemporary art addressed the idea of a people? How has the relationship between aesthetics and democracy been reconfigured?
- Jacques Rancière (Philosopher and Emeritus Professor, University of Paris VIII)
- Brian Dillon (Writer, Art Critic and frieze Columnist)
Picturing the Future
Sunday 23 October
Combining cultural history and discussions of artistic practice, the panel examined the relationship between contemporary culture and our imagining of the future.
- Kodwo Eshun (Journalist and Academic)
- Jennifer Higgie (co-Editor of frieze)
- George Pendle (Author and Journalist)
- Chair: Michael Bracewell (Writer)
Contemporary Art Versus Its Envelope: Competition and Co-Evolution
Saturday 22 October
Thomas Crow, Director, Getty Research Institute and Professor of Art History, University of South California, Los Angeles, delivered a keynote lecture. Crow, the author of such seminal art history texts as Modern Art in the Common Culture (1996) and The Intelligence of Art (1999), proposes that the contemporary hyper-expansion of the spaces for art has decisively altered the character of the art designed to fill them. The talk considered the ways in which ‘institutional critique’ in art practice since the 1960s has laid the ground for a Baroque efflorescence of art’s apparatus of display.
- Thomas Crow (Getty Research Institute and Professor of Art History, USC, Los Angeles)
The Future of the Exhibition
Saturday 22 October
Roger M. Buergel, Exhibition Organiser and Author, Lecturer in Visual Art Theory at Lüneburg University, Germany and Artistic Director, ‘documenta XII’ (2007), discussed curatorial methods and aesthetic experience with Jörg Heiser, co-Editor of frieze. What are the tensions between curator and artist, aesthetics and politics and between thematic display and the single work? Can the renegotiation of these relationships really be made productive?
- Roger M. Buergel (Curator, Lecturer and Author)
- Jörg Heiser ( Co-Editor of frieze)
How has Art Changed?
Saturday 22 October
Art and the structures surrounding it have changed significantly over the past 40 years. The panel addressed major shifts in art education, artistic, feminist and curatorial practice, and the expanded geography of the art world.
- Lynne Cooke (Curator, DIA Art Foundation)
- Michael Craig-Martin (Artist)
- Linda Nochlin (Art Historian, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor of Modern Art, NYU Institute of Fine Arts)
- Walid Raad (Artist and co-Founder of The Atlas Group)
- Chair: Mark Godfrey (Art Historian and Critic)
Composer and Interpreter
Friday 21 October
Legendary composer and acknowledged pioneer of electronic music, Karlheinz Stockhausen made a rare visit to London to deliver his own, unique brand of lecture with musical examples played by Suzanne Stephens (basset-horn) and Kathinka Pasveer (alto flute). Stockhausen’s lecture took place on the eve of a special performance for Frieze Music at Old Billingsgate Market.
- Karlheinz Stockhausen (Composer)
Architecture and the Museum
Friday 21 October
Zaha Hadid, one of the world’s leading architects in conversation with Alice Rawsthorn, Director, Design Museum, London. Recipient of the Pritzker prize, Hadid recently designed the Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art, Cincinatti and is renowned for her commitment to revolutionary forms and ideas. Here she talks to Alice Rawsthorn, about her practice and her particular involvement with key cultural projects.
- Zaha Hadid (Architect)
- Alice Rawsthorn (Director, Design Museum, London)
Architecture and the Museum
Friday 21 October
Zaha Hadid, one of the world’s leading architects in conversation with Alice Rawsthorn, Director, Design Museum, London. Recipient of the Pritzker prize, Hadid recently designed the Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art, Cincinatti and is renowned for her commitment to revolutionary forms and ideas. Here she talks to Alice Rawsthorn, about her practice and her particular involvement with key cultural projects.
- Zaha Hadid (Architect)
- Alice Rawsthorn (Director, Design Museum, London)
The Dilemma of Collecting: The Search for Meaning in a Time of Consensus and High Profit
Friday 21 October
A frank conversation between three curators about the challenges facing private and public contemporary art collections.
- Alison M. Gingeras (Adjunct Curator, Guggenheim Museum)
- Richard Flood (Chief Curator, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York)
- Chair: Allan Schwartzman (Independent Curator)
Lethal Theory: Organized Violence and Informal Cities
15 October 2006
Eyal Weizman, Architect, Writer and Director of Goldsmiths College’s Centre of Research Architecture delivered a keynote lecture critiquing military action and the imagination of urban areas.
- Eyal Weizman (Architect, Writer and Director of Goldsmiths College’s Centre of Research Architecture)
What Are We Building Now? The Architectonics of Power: Space and the City in Global Realities
Sunday 15 October
A discussion exploring architecture, urban planning and cultural imagination. What are the new visions and sensations of space, place, boundary and limit?
- Lu Jie (Founder and Chief Curator, Long March Project)
- Achille Mbembe (Research Professor in History and Politics, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, South Africa)
- Marjetica Potrc (Artist and Architect)
- Saskia Sassen (Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago)
- Chair: Roland Kapferer (Anthropologist)
Ruins of the Twentieth Century
Sunday 15 October
The traditional ruin is an aesthetic compromise between nature and artifice — it embodies the moment when nature begins to reclaim what man has made. This discussion explored the artistic, architectural and cultural remains of the recent past, and imagine what it means to inhabit the ruins of the future.
- Svetlana Boym (Artist and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University)
- Steven Connor (Writer and Cultural Critic)
- Susan Hiller (Artist)
- Jeremy Millar (Artist and Curator)
- Chair: Brian Dillon (Writer and Critic)
Criticizing the Critics
Saturday 14 October
Artist Adrian Piper delivered a keynote lecture dissecting the activity of criticism and considering several different models according to which this activity might be understood — and misunderstood — by proponents of different models, according to their interests and roles in the art world. The lecture was followed by a Q&A with Jörg Heiser, co-editor of frieze magazine.
- Adrian Piper (Artist)
- Jörg Heiser (Co-editor of frieze magazine)
Conceptual Painting
Saturday 14 October
A discussion exploring the relationship between the legacies of conceptualism and contemporary painting. How can we establish criteria for discussing the relationship between conceptual practice and painting today?
- Wade Guyton (Artist)
- Charline von Heyl (Artist)
- Július Koller (Artist)
- Lucy Soutter (Artist, Critic and Art Historian, London College of Communication)
- Frances Stark (Artist)
- Chair: Jan Verwoert (Art Historian and Critic)
Seven Easy Pieces Or How To Perform
Friday 13 October 2006
Artist Marina Abramovic delivered a keynote lecture on the situation of performance today and its development since the 1970s.
- Marina Abramovic (Artist)
Art, Writing, Performativity
Friday 13 October 2006
A conversation between Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, distinguished Professor of English, City University of New York Graduate Center and Gavin Butt, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
- Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (Professor of English, City University of New York Graduate Center)
- Gavin Butt (Senior Lecturer in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, London)
The Expanded Gallery - Mass Forms for Private Consumption
12pm, Thursday 11 October 2007
A discussion chaired by Alice Rawsthorn (Design Critic, International Herald Tribune) examining how bespoke forms of industrial design, graphics and film have recently moved into the traditional preserves of art. What cultural value do they bring to the spaces of the gallery and the museum?
- Chair Alice Rawsthorn (Design Critic, International Herald Tribune)
- Emily King (Design Historian)
- Marc Newson (Designer)
- Peter Saville (Designer and Artist)
- Francesco Vezzoli (Artist)
I Am Not a Flopper Or…
4pm, Thursday 11 October 2007
For Frieze Art Fair 2007 Mario Garcia Torres reframed the body of work of film auteur Allen Smithee through a series of interventions around the fair. Smithee delivered a keynote lecture elaborating the complex relationships between his public persona and the long filmography for which he has become known.
Script written by Mario Garcia Torres and Aaron Schuster and performed by Stephen Campbell Moore.
Custodians of Culture - The Museum: Institutions of Market or Measure?
12pm, Friday 12 October 2007
A discussion chaired by Massimiliano Gioni (Artistic Director, Nicola Trussardi Foundation, Milan and Curator of Special Exhibitions, New Museum, New York) examining the changing relationship between museums, artists, their sponsors and patrons.
- Chair: Massimiliano Gioni (Artistic Director, Nicola Trussardi Foundation, Milan and Curator, New Museum, New York)
- Lisa Dennison (Executive Vice President of Sotheby’s North America)
- Julia Peyton-Jones (Director, Serpentine Gallery and Co-director, Exhibitions & Programmes)
- Sturtevant (Artist)
Custodians of Culture - Schoolyard Art: Playing Fair Without the Referee
4pm, Friday 12 October 2007
Dave Hickey (Cultural Critic and Professor of English, University of Nevada, Las Vegas) presented a keynote lecture on the subject of selling without selling out focusing on how sites of commerce have evolved from the white cube to the art fair.
- Dave Hickey (Cultural Critic and Professor of English, University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
Theory & Practice - Art Education Today
12pm, Saturday 13 October 2007
A discussion chaired by Ralph Rugoff (Director, Hayward Gallery) questioning whether market forces have created an emphasis on product over process. Does the current art school curriculum reflect our times?
- Chair: Ralph Rugoff (Director, The Hayward)
- Saskia Bos (Dean, School of Art, The Cooper Union)
- Tobias Rehberger (Artist)
- Anton Vidokle (Artist)
Theory & Practice - Thierry de Duve
4pm, Saturday 13 October 2007
Thierry de Duve (Historian and Theorist of contemporary art and Professor at University of Lille III) presented a keynote lecture. Dedicated to a reinterpretation of Modernism and an examination of its legacies, de Duve is author of several books including Kant after Duchamp (1996) and the forthcoming Held Together with Water: Art from the Verbund Collection.
- Thierry de Duve (Historian and Theorist of contemporary art and Professor at University of Lille III)
Cultural Cartography - Does Art Travel?
12pm, Sunday 14 October 2007
A discussion chaired by Philippe Vergne (Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Walker Art Center) focusing on whether art can really speak across borders. What happens when the local becomes global?
- Chair: Philippe Vergne (Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis)
- Ekaterina Degot (Writer and Curator)
- Paulo Herkenhoff (Independent Curator and Art Historian)
- Midori Matsui (Art Critic)
Cultural Cartography - Roni Horn
4pm, Sunday 14 October 2007
Roni Horn (Artist) presented a keynote lecture exploring ideas of site-specificity and seriality in her work. Her most recent project, Library of Water (Iceland), is the culmination of a lifelong interest in the relationship of language to place.
- Roni Horn (Artist)
Good Taste? Bad Taste?
12pm, Thursday 12 October 2006
A discussion exploring the role of taste in the visual arts today. How is individual taste formed? What does taste mean today?
- Carlo Antonelli (Editor-in-chief, Rolling Stone magazine, Italy)
- Thelma Golden (Director and Chief Curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem)
- Darian Leader (Psychoanalyst)
- Tirdad Zolghadr (Writer and Curator)
- Chair: Alice Rawsthorn (Design Critic, International Herald Tribune)
Taste: Factories in the Snow
5pm, Thursday 12 October 2007
A keynote lecture on the commercialization of culture. Issues raised related to constructions of taste, the leisure industry and the hegemony of hyper-capitalist service industries.
- Liam Gillick (Artist)
New Performativity
12pm, Friday 13 October 2006
The last decade has been marked by a new type of performance-based art that takes its meaning from both the context and the performers. What factors have determined the emergence of this trend, and what are the key changes?
- Francesco Bonami (Manilow Senior Curator at Large, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago)
- Eda Cufer (Dramaturg, Writer and Curator)
- Elmgreen & Dragset (Artists)
- Surasi Kusolwong (Artist)
- Chair: Claire Bishop (Art Historian and Critic)
