This Week In Art

October 23, 2008 - October 29, 2008

Most had low expectations for Frieze this year, but the consensus was that it could have been worse in light of the current global economic downturn. Artforum Scene & Herd was on hand as usual to cover the openings and surrounding events, but check out ArtObserved’s great news roundup for a comprehensive overview.

Discussion about what the art market downturn will mean for artists was also rampant, and a conversation on art in the Middle East at Phillips de Pury (where I spied Mr. de Pury himself playing a game on his blackberry), drew the likes of Jumex Foundation Director Abaseh Mirvali. The latter centered on the idea that we will be looking more and more towards the art of the East while this past century was all about the West.

Artist Philippe Parreno seemed to be on everyone’s mind as well. Crowds overflowed onto the streets at the opening of his show Thursday night and he’s also included in theanyspacewhatever, which opens at the Guggenheim on Sunday.

I often find art fairs themselves a bit overwhelming, with so much to see and so many people to meet. But they’re also a great place for the exchange of ideas, which was particularly true this year. The Frieze program boasted artists from Yoko Ono to Fritz Haeg, both of whom participated in the Serpentine Gallery’s Manifesto Marathon 2008, which was the most interesting program of the week. We spent the weekend there, shivering in the glorious Frank Gehry pavilion and listening to, as Serpentine Director Julia Peyton-Jones put it, “ideas about the world and our place in it.” That means we were faced with a lot of crucial questions, such as whether or not we have time to be art lovers in the midst of global economic, climate and political crisis, and whether or not art can be an anchor for understanding the world in such difficult times. In that sense the Pavilion came to feel like a temporary community and I was reminded of how sublime a simple collective experience can be — something that is increasingly fleeting as we live our lives in front of computers and television screens.

I encourage you to read James Westcott’s coverage of the Marathon on ArtReview.com, in which he sums up Hans Ulrich Obrist’s “deliberately anachronistic” intention for the theme of this Marathon: “Yes, he wanted to incite manifestos for an age that is supposedly disillusioned with them, but actually hungry for them – maybe in the hope that some certainty, overview or ideological ambition might emerge. How do artists want to change the world? Do artists want to change the world? We hope so, right?”

Filed Under: See Events Greater L.A.

Posted by: Bettina Korek on October 24, 2008

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