ArCHITECTUrE, DISPATCHES ArT, MUSIC, ArCHITECTUrE, FILM, SHOPPING, NEWS AND THINGS TO MAkE AND DO… ArT, MUSIC, ArCHITECTUrE, FILM, SHOPPING, NEWS AND THINGS TO MAkE AND DO…
TaLes frOm The ciTy: London
words MArk rAPPOLT “October. That means London.” That’s Normally we would now have reached
something a collector said to me the the point at which the art critic
other day. And it pretty much sums up launches a massive, perhaps even
the impact art fairs have had on the emotional whinge-athon about the
artworld over the last few years. To corrupting influence of money over
people involved in contemporary art, taste. There’d be some worthy
October no longer designates the tenth handwringing about those other values
month in the calendar year; it, like (politics, aesthetics, etc) that the
almost every month, distinguishes a market supposedly ignores or doesn’t
place rather than a time, just as appreciate, and then the inevitable
April means Frankfurt and Cologne, comparison between Frieze’s great
June Basel and December Miami. art tent (or canvas cathedral) and a
supermarket. But perhaps none of these
That said, perhaps it’s a bit of critiques is really that relevant. If
an exaggeration to say that the contemporary art is, on some level,
artworld’s redefinition of the suppposed to absorb, examine and
Gregorian calendar excludes any sense sometimes challenge the world around
of time whatsoever. As much as October it, then you could argue that it is
now means London, it does still entirely necessary that it be part of
define a period of elapsed time. It’s the most powerful of the forces that
just that the artworld’s idea of a shape that world (the market) in order
‘month’ defines something a good deal to talk sensibly about it. Perhaps what
shorter than supposed by the rest of art really lacks in this context (and
the world. That’s because the new we haven’t even mentioned the endless
‘month’ is primarily regulated by the cycle of biennials that contribute
movements of dealers and collectors to this) is a real-world sense of
(and the airline schedules that time and the freedoms that allows.
facilitate this), and the amount of
art they can buy (or sell), parties This year ArtReview was invited to
they can attend and hangovers they collaborate with the Zoo Art Fair on
can nurse during the space of roughly a section of their catalogue. Given
a week, rather than any arithmetical the above, we thought it would be a
divisions of the sun’s movements. good idea to uncompress an art fair.
Yep, the artworld now operates in a To bring it back, if you like, into
completely different solar system. contact with the real world. So rather
than looking in, at what was going
on at individual booths, our writers
Perhaps what art really
looked out, at what was going on
over a traditional 12-month period
lacks in an art fair
in the emerging art scenes of three
key cities – London, New York and
context is a real-world
Berlin. We did it because it’s easy to
forget that that’s what art fairs are
sense of time and the
really about; that art doesn’t always
happen in easily digestible booth-size
freedoms that allows
chunks, but in a messy, confusing and
often undefinable manner, whatever
the time and whatever the place.
So, this month we’re off to the
Frieze Art Fair and its satellites
– the main ones being the Zoo Art
Fair, Year 07, Pulse and Bridge. And
to go to any of them is to experience
a peculiar compression of time and
space: a map of the world (or at least
those parts of the world that have
successful art retail outfits) redrawn
as a series of booths and stands,
through which it only takes the time
of a few steps to travel. And around
that, you have every major gallery and
museum in town pulling out their big-
gun artists to launch major shows.
ArTrEvIEw 52
Dispatches_columns_Oct LDN.indd 2 12/9/07 09:47:20
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182