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[MUSIC PLAYING]
INTERVIEWER: The Frieze London and Frieze Masters Fairs are key events in the art market calendar. Private collectors and museum curators from around the world are in London this week. And a lot of art is bought and sold here.
But Frieze want their fairs to feel like cultural happenings and not just trade shows. That's why there are restaurants, talks programmes, and film screenings. And here at Frieze London, there are the Frieze projects too. These are commissioned works. They're not for sale. And they're dotted around the fair like little interventions in the marketplace.
The artist Julie Verhoeven performance takes place in the ladies' loos. It's supposed to make us think about the invisibility of workers at a place like Frieze. Wonderland Avenue is another of the Frieze projects. It's by the writer Sibylle Berg and the artist Claus Richter. And the performance imagines a near future in which machines are in control.
ROBOT: Please wake up. And, you take a glimpse in this extraordinary facility in the enchanted wonderland down in you.
INTERVIEWER: This is Samson Young's multimedia sound walk. It's supposed to create a parallel fictional world within the fair. Let's see what happens.
ARTIST THROUGH HEADPHONES: (WHISPERS) To talk about my fears is difficult because I feel very fortunate. I feel lucky. So, I don't have many things to be afraid of really. Maybe that something can happen to the people I love but--
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INTERVIEWER: Watching over the fair is a piece by the young artist, Yuri Pattison, who has won this year's Frieze Artist Award. He has created a network collecting data from around the fair, which is displayed on these screens.
RAPHAEL GYGAX: Yuri Pattison's piece is all based on trending data and metacommunication. He installed a couple of cameras on the tent, around the tent, filming the park. And on the other hand, he has microphones that doesn't record but it transmits pieces and bits of what people talk about to a computer. And his computer translates it and shows it on the screen. So, you can read it as a critique on this whole trending data.
So, for me, the central motif for this year's programme was really the human and how do we relate to each other. What kind of relationships do we foster? What is empathy today or what it's not? Or is it lacking? Frieze project is a performative space in that sense. A lot of the projects have a performative aspect. So, people are involved. The audience is more involved than just looking at something.
I think also for a collector, it's extremely important to see something else as well. And not just to have this kind of fixed sculptures or paintings but also to see more of these social sculptures.
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INTERVIEWER: Frieze projects tackle big, contemporary issues in engaging ways. They're designed to punctuate the rows of gallery booths here without ever disrupting the business of selling. This is an art fair, after all.