First look at Frieze

Frieze Art Fair starts next week. We’ve been going through the list of attractions and it’s pretty safe to say curator Sarah McCrory and the Frieze organisers have put together the best bill yet for the four-day festival.

Now in its 9th year - the second curated by McCrory - Frieze is the biggest arts fair in Europe. In fact it’s become so important to the international arts scene that next year a second event will be held in New York in May and a second UK leg, Frieze Masters will be staged. For now though, these are the pieces, people and themes you shouldn’t miss when it starts on Thursday (October 13).

The insider comment on the art market - Christian Jankowski’s yacht German artist Jankowski plans to sell a yacht at this year’s fair but in a new twist on Duchamp’s infamous urinal, Fountain, it will sell at two price points. If you want to buy it as a yacht it will cost one amount; if you want to buy it as an artwork it’s priced significantly higher. It’s a comment on the structures behind the pricing levels of the art market and the yacht’s status as luxury object. “When such a cost-intense object such as this boat is for sale it is immediately in dialogue with the whole of the fair market situation,” Jankowski says. “What if a major collector is determined to buy this boat instead of another art work?

The young and achingly cool media manipulators - Lucky PDF We’ve had our eye on this core-of-four, South London collective since their emergence in 2008 and we’re very happy to see them at this year’s fair. They’re aiming to generate a video a day in collaboration with 30 - 50 other artists exhibiting, big and small. These will take the form of ‘broadcasts’ complete with guest presenter at the end of each day. The group are particularly interested in the death of national TV in terms of collective viewing. “We want to locate our practice very much at the forefront of communication, networking and new methods of production,” says the group’s John Hill.

The hot newcomer who’s definitely going places - Ed Atkins Ed Atkins only graduated from an MA at the Royal College last year but already this young digital artist has won a handful of awards. His work is sexy, gross, surreal and beguiling and inhabits the space where recorded movement is lost in a blur of computer code. His piece for Frieze, Delivery To The Following Recipient Failed Permanently, centres on the notion that the digital medium can spirit people away from each other as well as connect them. Atkins is also co-hosting a performance at the Chisenhale Gallery with Venice Silver Medal winner Hiroun Mirza during Frieze.

Still from Ed Atkins' The Scent: Death Mask II(2010)

The architects du jour - Carmody Groarke Kevin Carmody and Andy Groarke met while working on retail stores for Gucci at David Chipperfield’s practice. The Australian (Carmody) and Brit (Groarke) have since created a pop up restaurant on the roof of London’s Westfield Stratford City from building materials left on the site. In addition, they collaborated with Antony Gormley on his Blind Light Pavilion at the Hayward Gallery and with Carsten Holler on his Double Club for Prada a couple of years back. Their poignant 7/7 memorial in London was universally well received. Their Frieze structure, which features felt-lined refreshment rooms, translucent pavilions and public squares, sounds like the perfect place to recharge during the four days.

The place you’ll return to, like it or not – Peles Empire’s Rumanian Schnapps bar Rumanian Schnapps tends to sit all too well alongside descriptions such as: ‘a bit salty’, ‘vile’ and that old favourite, ‘never again’ - none of which, however, will stop Peles Empire’s, installation from becoming the hang out at this year’s fair. Founded in 2005 by Katharina Stoever and Barbara Wolff, Peles Empire’s work takes as its source material Peles, a Romanian castle sited at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains. Their ‘bar’ acts as a Gesamtkunstwerk in which everything - from the reproduced room and its decorative furnishings, to the serving of guests and taking part in the fair - is part of the work. “We’ve been back to the castle recently and documented all the objects, like vases, radiators and strange contemporary lamps that have been left there,” says Wolff. “We’re going to reproduce those objects with a slight twist.

Peles Empire, a collaboration between Katharina Stoever (left) and Barbara Wolff (right)

The art as political act piece - Anahita Razmi Iranian artist Razmi’s dance across the rooftops of Tehran uses Tricia Brown’s 1971-73 Roof Piece, which saw her flit across the roofs of SoHo, New York as its point of departure. Razmi’s piece though recalls how the rooftops of Tehran resounded to the cries of ‘death to the dictator’ following the re-election of President Ahmadinejad. Razmi has been awarded the Emdash Award which allows an emerging non-UK artist to realise a project at Frieze.

Anahita Razmi, China Girl (2009)

The Freeze talk that will make you think again - Adam Curtis It’s hard to pick a highlight from a Frieze Talks list that includes John Bock, Daniel Buren, Alison Knowles and Taryn Simon, but Adam Curtis just swings it for us purely because his Power Of Nightmares, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace and The Century Of The Self series trod the line between journalism and art so cleverly. Curtis uses experimental and archival film to explore notions of political power and the influence of psychology on PR and advertising. He overlays existing interview and news footage, TV ads and 50s movies with arousing and often inappropriate soundtracks. You can’t book in advance so get your name down early on the day.

Documentary maker Adam Curtis

The pop up you’ll have to beg to get into - The Minotaur in Vic Tunnels Street art isn’t really represented at Frieze but that didn’t stop Lazarides Gallery’s pop up in the same venue last year becoming the destination place to dine for upmarket fair goers. They’ve done it again this year – but with a different theme. If you’ve left it this late your only hope of getting in may be the private rooms ‘wallpapered’ in works by Antony Micallef, Ian Francis and Conor. First you need to register though,which you can do here Theminotaur.co.uk

We’ll be bringing you interviews with the movers and shakers and more news on events in the run up to Frieze which starts on Thursday. Buy tickets here