frieze issue 151 looks at the year in review, examines the art of the essay and pays a visit to Amsterdam.
In Review: As 2012 draws to a close, frieze invites a number of writers and curators from around the world to reflect on the year in art. Featuring: Daniel Baumann, Ellen Blumenstein, Tatiana Cuevas, Charlotte Day, Douglas Fogle, Dan Kidner, Silas Martí, Yasmine El Rashidi, Elodie Royer & Yoann Gourmel, Katy Siegel, Sam Thorne and Carol Yinghua Lu.
Energy & Rue: Brian Dillon surveys writers from Michel de Montaigne to Wayne Koestenbaum, and from Virginia Woolf to Chris Marker, and asks whether the centuries-old form of the essay could be the genre of the future.
City Report: Amsterdam: To coincide with the reopening of the Stedelijk Museum, three reports from the Dutch Capital. Nick Aikens reviews the renovated museum; Maxine Kopsa takes stock of last year’s cuts to cultural budgets; while Timotheus Vermeulen considers the impact of the recent national elections.
Also featuring: As the Billy Apple® brand turns 50, the artist talks to Anthony Byrt about a career that has redefined art’s relationship with advertising, science and technology; plus Vivian Sky Rehberg takes stock of the traffic between the worlds of art and dress.
More highlights:
Books: From the previously unpublished journals of Susan Sontag to the contemporary poetry of Cynthia Cruz and Karl Holmqvist via Danh Võ’s catalogue raisonné of his father’s work and a new biography of David Foster Wallace, Quinn Latimer presents this year’s most thought-provoking publications.
Architecture: artist Jean-Baptiste Decavèle writes a letter to visionary architect Yona Friedman.
Music: Geeta Dayal considers the repercussions of hiphop artist Frank Ocean’s coming out.
Design: Jennifer Kabat measures the success of community design projects, from Dakar to Newfoundland. which promise to create opportunities for new local manufacturing to break the ‘IKEA-ization of the world’.
Film: Bert Rebhandl finds a new wave of social-realist storytelling in American cinema.
In our regular columns: Lynne Tillman asks how artists respond to current events; Sean O’Toole surveys the rise and fall of biennials in the DRC, Senegal and South Africa; and Jennifer Allen considers the currency of ‘patho-politics’.
Exhibition Reviews: 35 exhibitions from 26 cities in 16 countries including: ‘Newtopia: The State of Human Rights’ Brussels & Mechelen, Belgium; Liverpool Biennial 2012, UK; ‘Theatre of the World’ Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Australia; ‘Caribbean Crossroads of the World’ El Museo Barrio, Queens Museum of Art & The Studio Museum Harlem, New York, USA.
Questionnaire: Goshka Macuga. ‘What could you imagine doing if you didn’t do what you do?’ ‘Aside from creating a new trend in music and becoming an animal, I would like to try non-stop dancing.’
Frieze Video:
The latest installment of specially commissioned video criticism:
– Cosey Fanni Tutti and Chris Carter talk to frieze from their home and studio about their new album, Desertshore / The Final Report, a song-by-song cover of Nico’s 1970 album Desertshore – with contributions from guest vocalists Antony, Marc Almond, Sasha Gray, Blixa Bargeld and Gaspar Noé.
– Plus, Vivian Sky Rehberg presents an essay about costume and contemporary art.
Frieze Blog:
More comment and opinion from frieze‘s editors and regular contributors:
– Anthony McCall and David Grubbs discuss their recent performance of ‘Leaving (With Four Half-Turns)’.
– Shama Khanna visits Stockholm for the two-day seminar ‘Imagining the Audience: Viewing Positions in Curatorial and Artistic Practice’.
– David Morris considers the unlikely role of jokes in the work of John Cage.
