The Frieze week has already gone… and it was quick like the tail of a falling star, but thanks to the myriads of shows opened in galleries and project spaces all around the city, its aura is still bright.

Amongst the countless exhibitions and special events, three are my favourites, (X) An Evening of Performances organised by DRAF (3^rd October, Koko), the group show Silver Sehnsucht curated by the collaborative organisation Approved by Pablo A-by-P (30^th September – 8^th October, Silver Building), and the film installation by Marianna Simnett, Worst Gift at Matt’s Gallery (6^th September – 22^nd October).

Thus, a performance event, a group exhibition and, an immersive film installation which together, have really left me with the thought that, after all, the art world it is not just about sale and possession-given value, but it is still about art, culture, politic, society, and having fun in making things collectively.

My Frieze-week exploration started on Tuesday 3^rd of October with (X) An Evening of Performances, the 10^th of an annual series also celebrating the 10^th anniversary of David Roberts Art Foundation. For this special occasion, the event occupied the fascinating KOKO – a theatre-like premier’s music venue in baroque style –  and brought together an astonishing number of artists, musicians, and choreographers (around 80-90 including their collaborators) in an evening of live works. The atmosphere was kind of chilled gig-like with a more artsy audience and the venue was packed with people. There I had the chance to see (and listen) some spectacular performances. In order of execution and amongst many others, the sarcastic performance by Kris Lemsalu, In Heaven Everything Is Fine, in which the singer and songwriter Glasser, while performing from a balcony, gets the company of four super-star archangels (David Bowie and Prince among the ones I recognised). Then, it was the turn of the ecstatic performance of Adam Christensen who, with his accordion and fantastic voice, enchanted the public. Last in order of execution, the performances of the Scottish group Stasis, a quartet of girls who investigates themes of gender and society through energy consuming and ironically choreographed dance works.

 

 

On the following days, I went down to south London between the Royal Dock and Silvertown where the Silver Building – a massive industrial building which has been left derelict for 20 years, now undergoing an impressive refurbishment to host artists’ studios and start-ups and creative enterprises – overlooks the area. It was here that Silver Sehnsucht took place, occupying two floors of the disused building in the days foregoing the refurbishment. Curated by the A-by-P, this was a group exhibition featuring the works of 14 artists coming from Europe, US, Korea, and Philippines (Brad Downey, Christine Sun Kim, Christopher Stead, Helen Hunter & Mark Peter Wright, James Bridle, Jazoo Yang, Khadija Von Zinnenburg Carroll, Mark Salvatus, Poklong Anading, Paola Torres Nunez Del Prado, Rosana Antoli, William Mackrell). The curators Mara-Johanna Kolmel, Silvana Lagos, and Rafael Schacter developed Silver Sehnsucht to transmit to the public the feeling of nostalgia (Sehnsucht) that could rise from a situation like the one of the Silver building, investigating the condition of being “in limbo” between past, present, and future. The show brought together sound, performance, video, and installation works and merged the tree temporalities reflecting on the building conditions as well as the condition of contemporary art now.

Upon entrance to the show, I had straight in front of my eyes the 4-channel video work Close Reading (2015) by Christine Sum Kim and immediately understood that Silver Sehnsucht was going to be a good exhibition. Christine Sun Kim, deaf since birth, is making her way in contemporary art exploring the materiality of sound and the possibilities of the American Sign Language (ASL). The work uses two films: 2001: A Space Odissey (1968), and The Little Mermaid (2015) which have been captioned by 4 non-hearing friends of the artist and offers an insight into non-hearing audience experiences. Moving further into the exhibition, the works were installed in halls, corridors, and storage rooms occupying both the ground floor and third floor of the building. The exhibition space was gorgeous, some areas were occupied by the exhibition and others were inaccessible, sealed with the black & yellow tape for hazard marking. Concrete, bricks, aged pipes, dust, and mould, contributed to creating a fascinating immersive experience which culminated in the video work Gradient Ascent (2017) by the artist, writer, and technologist James Bridle. Shot in Greece, Gradient Ascent follows an explorative drive up to Mount Parnassus which, in the classic age, was believed to be home of muses, art, and knowledge. As to follow its narrative, the video was installed on the farthest and smallest storage room of the building and it was projected on top of a steep wall, as if on top of a mountain. The narrative which accompanies the video was inspired by René Daumal’s surrealist novel Mount Analogue (1952) and describes the search for knowledge through mythology, bringing some elements of oriental religions, in the current technological time. An attempt to pursue a mystic path in an era which obstacles any human connection with the world, thus with the understanding (knowledge) of existence.

My visit to the Frieze-week exhibitions was prolonged for a considerable amount of time and concluded almost at the end of October at Matt’s Gallery in South London. Here, it was showcased an immersive video-installation by the British artist Marianna Simnett who premiered her last work Worst Gift, the sequel of The Needle and The Larynx (2016). Worst Gift is shot in a Botox factory and theatrical surgery and unrolls in the format of a musical with fairy tales (or rather Disney-like) elements in which a singing surgeon injects prepubescent boys with Botox to lower their voices. In the video, there is also a female protagonist (played by the artist) who is on a mission to obtain that same injection which, however, the surgeon refuses to her. The video projection is set up within a light and sound installation synchronised with the video and its music. Hanging from the gallery ceiling there were tens of retro-illuminated vials which recalled the pharmaceutical industry and brought out from the film – in the real world – the main element, Botox. In this way, the installation represents the continuation of the video into the physical dimension. The film installation left the spectators with a hint of how the body limits could be overcome (or not) by medicine interventions and how the medical profession could still be affected by traditional thoughts regarding gender and society structure, all part of Simnett’s ongoing artistic exploration. Worst Gift was captivating and disturbing, almost disgusting but fully immersive.

 

 

This was an intense art week which lasted pretty much one month and, since I moved to London in 2015, I believe that Frieze 2017 was the most interesting edition in terms of offer to the public. Thus, a big thank you to all the galleries, art organisations, studio spaces, and artists which every year contribute to the success of such an important art event by opening their best shows.