Frieze Issue 149:
Art and Activism
‘Most debates tend to get tangled up with the word “activism” itself, which usually implies some kind of collective endeavour. But I like to think of it in a more expanded way; after all there are more ways of being active and socially engaged than organizing a meeting.’ –Jennifer Higgie
dOCUMENTA (13): Alex Farquharson and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie grapple with the complexities of an exhibition that incorporates more than 300 participants on multiple sites which extend beyond Kassel to Alexandria/Cairo, Banff and Kabul.
‘Questions and Answers’: Suzanne Lacy talks to Jennifer Higgie about the collaborations, videos and large-scale performances that she has created over the past 40 years. ‘I met Judy Chicago when I was a graduate student in psychology, as she was starting her Feminist Art Programme. I thought, wow, I could be political and make art at the same time.’
‘Look into the Camera’: Since the early 1960s Peter Watkins has explored film’s potential as a medium of communication and catharsis for actors and audiences alike. Jonty Claypole visits the director and the cast of his 1974 film Edvard Munch.
‘Never Enough’: On the occasion of David France’s new documentary How to Survive a Plague and a recent retrospective at New York University’s 80WSE gallery, writer Jennifer Kabat looks back at the AIDS activism of ACT UP and Gran Fury in the late 1980s and early ’90s and finds a template for the future.
Also featuring: Theaster Gates, Mark Godfrey talks to the artist, musician and activist about his unique combination of art and urban regeneration; Christy Lange considers the pros and cons of community-based practice via the work of Kateřina Šedá; and ‘New Schools’, a survey of recently founded artist-run art academies and education programmes by Sam Thorne.
More highlights from the September issue:
Picture Piece: Dan Fox on the bikesploitation film The Cycle Savages.
Questionnaire: Renata Lucas – What is art for? ‘Perhaps it’s one of the few things left that allows us to declare that we don’t fit the given standards.’
Books: Three new publications on socially engaged art by Claire Bishop, Creative Time and Pablo Helguera.
Exhibition Reviews: 37 reviews from 30 cities including Nick Aikens on Manifesta 9; Vivian Sky Rehberg on the 2012 Paris Triennale; Catherine Grant on Simon Fujiwara at Tate St Ives; and Jonathan Griffin on ‘Made in LA 2012′.
Plus: Elizabeth Rush on performance art in Burma; Jace Clayton surveys the Aztec imagery and digital soundworld of Mexican producer Javier Estrada; Sean O’Toole connects imagination, football and the Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe; and Co-curator of Manifesta 9, Katerina Gregos, selects her ‘Ideal Syllabus’.
Exclusively on Frieze.com:
Frieze Video: In a specially commissioned film by frieze, Suzanne Lacy talks about the evolution of her ideas.
Plus on the frieze blog:
- William Kelly reflects on the 75th commemoration of Guernica.
- Valentin Diaconov reports from Moscow on Free Pussy Riot.
- The final installation of our survey of art writers and critics: ‘Who Do You Write For?’
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