Goodbye to Manhattan (2010) by Ken Okiishi

Paintballing now part of 2013's Frieze Projects

The London art fair's annual commissions break away from the traditional canvas and plinth creations

Their events may only last eight days in total, yet with New York's fair closing only five short weeks ago, and plans for this October's London event already underway, it feels like its always Frieze somewhere in the world.

It's a decade since the magazine-turned-events-company first held a fair in Regent's Park, and the new Frieze Projects commissions suggest 2013 might be a vintage year.

 

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Greek architect, Andreas Angelidakis's room will feature "his first experiment with a movable theatrical system." This discrete environment, will be an "altogether 'different' space within the surrounding architecture: an island within the fair."

 

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Meanwhile, Australian multimedia artist Gerry Bibby will place sculptures in the fair café, and oversee a series of performances, including one featuring fair staff eating oysters, and a collaboration with the Dutch performance art group, If I Can't Dance, I Don't Want to Be Part of Your Revolution.

 

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Brazilian-born, London-based Rivane Neuenschwander will install spying devices in the gallery, in a continuation of his 2010 work, The Conversation, which is itself an homage to the 1974 Francis Ford Coppola film of the same name, which starred Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert.

Greek multimedia artist, Angelo Plessas, will create an interactive playground for the fair's Family Space. French artist Lili Reynaud-Dewar will create an "immersive and performative environment" inspired by the French confessional author Guillaume Dustan's book Dans ma chambre (1996). Meanwhile, Austrian artist Josef Strau will make a series of letter-shaped sculptures.

 

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Finally, the American artist, Ken Okiishi, better-known for his Goodbye to Manhattan series (see top), which meditated on the changing nature of New York, will install a paint-balling arena. In part inspired by Niki de Saint Phalle's ballistic Shooting Pictures (see video, above). "The layers of coloured paint will gradually accumulate generating a series of abstract paintings," The Frieze site explains "Okiishi's commission will be set up within an environment enclosed by transparent, plexiglass walls, which will allow the public to view the work from a number of vantage points. On Sunday 20 October, Okiishi will present a participatory performance in the project space." What a way to round off the weekend.

For more on the Projects, go here. To learn how this year's event might fit into the wider sweep of art fair history, take a look at our brilliant book, Biennals and Beyond.