Frieze Talks is a daily program of presentations, panel discussions and conversations that will take place at Frieze New York. Featuring leading artists, writers and cultural commentators, the talks program is presented by Frieze Art Inc. and programmed by Cecilia Alemani. Participants include: Okwui Enwezor (Director, Haus der Kunst, Munich), Glenn D. Lowry (Director, The Museum of Modern Art, New York), Saskia Sassen (Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology Columbia University, New York) and Sheena Wagstaff (Chairman, Modern and Contemporary Art Department, Metropolitan Museum, New York).
In its inaugural year, Frieze Talks takes as inspiration the unique location of the fair: the geographical, social and cultural neighborhoods of Randall’s Island. This year’s program is organized thematically, focusing on the notion of the atlas, it will investigate different ways of mapping, describing and exploring. From geo-political maps to fictional sites; geographical explorations to mental states, Frieze Talks will consider the means by which art and artists have tried to represent and organize the world.
Frieze Talks will open with ‘Mapping the World of Art: André Malraux and his Musée Imaginaire‘, a’ keynote lecture by acclaimed French philosopher and art historian Georges Didi-Huberman, who has spent more than twenty years of studying the history and theory of images.
Critic and curator Robert Storr will analyze the work of Gerhard Richter and his influential ‘Atlas’, the ongoing archive of photographs, sketches and materials the acclaimed artist has been collecting since 1962. Also presented will be a conversation between artist Zoe Leonard and art historian Rhea Anastas; as well as lectures by artists Allan Sekula and Taryn Simon.
Frieze Talks will also present four panel discussions on current debates in contemporary art and theory. Topics include: ‘Expanding Museums’ in which three directors of major New York museums discuss the role of contemporary art institutions in the way we experience our cities; ‘New Geographies’, considering issues of new ethics and relativism; ‘On Land Occupation’, focusing on new ways to re-imagine borders and geographies; and ‘Collection Cartographies’ on private art collections that are geographically focused.
Cecilia Alemani commented: ‘Frieze Talks is an exciting platform where artists, critics, curators and writers will exchange ideas and create a fruitful dialogue. I look forward to welcoming a diverse group of speakers who will bring their own unique visions and perspectives on this year’s topic – the atlas.’
Talks Schedule:
Friday 4 May
1pm ‘Mapping the World of Art: André Malraux and his Musée Imaginaire‘
Georges Didi-Huberman (Philosopher, Art Historian and Professor, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris)
Since the early 1990s, Georges Didi-Huberman has devoted his research to the history and theory of images. A prominent philosopher and historian, here he discusses André Malraux’s Musée Imaginaire project.
3pm ‘Expanding Museums’
Glenn D. Lowry (Director, The Museum of Modern Art, New York), Adam D. Weinberg (Director, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York), Sheena Wagstaff (Chairman, Modern and Contemporary Art Department, Metropolitan Museum, New York) and Chair: Nicolai Ouroussoff (Writer and Critic, New York)
The panel discusses the current and future roles of contemporary art institutions in transforming the way we experience our cities and cultures.
5pm ‘Zoe Leonard in conversation with Rhea Anastas’
Zoe Leonard (Artist, New York) and Rhea Anastas (Art Historian, Los Angeles)
Taking as its focus Leonard’s activities of the past two years, this conversation explores ideas of practice and counterpoints within practice following Leonard’s socially attentive and meditative ‘Analogue’, a conceptually ordered serial compilation of photographs taken between 1998 and 2009 that was presented in a vastly-scaled installation, a book and a smaller group of 40 dye transfer prints.
Saturday 5 May
1pm ‘Art Isn’t Fair: Collecting for the 99%’
Allan Sekula (Artist, Photographer and Writer, Los Angeles)
Allan Sekula presents a short film, Art Isn’t Fair (2012), edited from footage shot in 2004 at Art Basel Miami Beach and dedicated to Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality (1755). Sekula also discusses Docker’s Museum, his ongoing collaboration
with the Museum.
3pm ‘New Geographies of Contemporary Art’
Negar Azimi (Senior Editor, Bidoun magazine), Bassam El Baroni (Co-founder and Director, Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum), Kate Fowle (Executive Director, Independent Curators International, New York) and Chair: Okwui Enwezor (Director, Haus der Kunst, Munich)
The panel looks at ethics and relativism in an international art world as new geographies expand the debate contributing values, agendas and beliefs.
5pm Frieze Projects:
Rick Moody (Writer, New York)
Rick Moody, writer, journalist and essayist, as well as songwriter and musician, reads from his literary composition realized for Frieze Projects, describing the adventures of an undependable GPS.
Sunday 6 May
1pm ‘On Gerhard Richter’s “Atlas”’
Robert Storr (Artist, Critic, Curator and Dean, Yale School of Art)
Eminent critic and curator Robert Storr analyzes the work of Gerhard Richter and his influential ‘Atlas’. An ongoing archive of photographs, sketches and materials collected by the acclaimed artist since 1962, it is a source of inspiration for his work and a way of mapping thoughts and processes. As one of the most important experts on the work of Richter, Storr curated the retrospective ‘Gerhard Richter. Forty Years of Painting MoMA’ (2003) and authored September, a History Painting by Gerhard Richter (2010).
3pm ‘On Land Occupation’
Saskia Sassen (Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology Columbia University, New York), Mitch Cope (Artist and Co-founder, Poert House Productions, Detroit) Andrea Geyer (Artist, New York) and Chair: Joseph Grima (Editor in Chief, Domus magazine)
Taking the Occupy Wall Street movement as a metaphor and starting point, artists and writers discuss recent episodes of land occupation and ways to re-imagine borders and geographies.
Monday 7 May
1pm Taryn Simon (Artist, New York)
Taryn Simon presents her recent work, A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII, exhibited at Museum of Modern Art, New York from May – September 2012. Produced over a four-year period during which the artist travelled around the world researching and recording bloodlines and their related stories, her collection is both cohesive and arbitrary, mapping the relationships between chance, blood and other components of fate.
3pm ‘Collection Cartographies’
Wassan Al-Khudairi (Director, Mathaf, Doha) Hans-Michael Herzog (Chief Curator, Daros Latin America, Zurich and Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro) Walter Seidl (Curator, Kontakt, The Art Collection of Erste Group and Erste Foundation, Vienna) and Chair: Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy (Curator of Contemporary Art, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York)
Directors and curators of private art collections focusing on Latin America, Europe and the Middle East Gulf region discuss why and how they study, preserve and map modernist histories and contemporary art scenes. For whom are the artistic cartographies that these collections figure? How are these collections formed, accessed and viewed within their regions and how do they interact with global discussions of contemporary art?
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