Programmed by Cecilia Alemani, speakers include Okwui Enwezor (Director, Haus der Kunst, Munich), Glenn D. Lowry (Director, The Museum of Modern Art, New York), Joseph Grima (Editor in Chief, Domus magazine) and Sheena Wagstaff (Chairman, Modern and Contemporary Art Department, Metropolitan Museum, New York).
In its inaugural year, Frieze Talks will take as inspiration the unique location of the fair: the geographical, social and cultural neighbourhoods of Randall's Island. The programme is organised thematically, focusing on the notion of the atlas, and investigating different ways of mapping, describing and exploring. From geo-political maps to fictional sites; geographical explorations to mental states, Frieze Talks will consider the means by which art and artists have tried to represent and organise the world.
Frieze Talks will open with Mapping the World of Art: André Malraux and his Musée Imaginaire, a keynote lecture by acclaimed French philosopher and art historian Georges Didi-Huberman, who has spent more than twenty years of studying the history and theory of images.
Critic and curator Robert Storr will analyse the work of Gerhard Richter and his influential Atlas, the on-going archive of photographs, sketches and materials the acclaimed artist has been collecting since 1962. Also presented will be a conversation between artist Zoe Leonard and art historian Rhea Anastas; as well as lectures by artists Allan Sekula and Taryn Simon.
Frieze Talks will also present four panel discussions on current debates in contemporary art and theory. Topics include: Expanding Museums in which three directors of major New York museums discuss the role of contemporary art institutions in the way we experience our cities; New Geographies, considering issues of new ethics and relativism; On Land Occupation, focusing on new ways to re-imagine borders and geographies; and Collection Cartographies on private art collections that are geographically focused.
Below is the full talks schedule:
Friday 4 May
1pm — Mapping the World of Art: André Malraux and his Musée Imaginaire
Georges Didi-Huberman (Philosopher, Art Historian and Professor, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris)
3pm — Expanding Museums
Glenn D. Lowry (Director, The Museum of Modern Art, New York), Adam D. Weinberg (Director, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York), Sheena Wagstaff (Chairman, Modern and Contemporary Art Department, Metropolitan Museum, New York) and Chair: Nicolai Ouroussoff (Writer and Critic, New York)
5pm — Zoe Leonard in conversation with Rhea Anastas
Zoe Leonard (Artist, New York) and Rhea Anastas (Art Historian, Los Angeles)
Saturday 5 May
1pm — Art Isn't Fair: Collecting for the 99%
Allan Sekula (Artist, Photographer and Writer, Los Angeles)
3pm — New Geographies of Contemporary Art
Negar Azimi (Senior Editor, Bidoun magazine), Bassam El Baroni (Co-founder and Director, Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum), Kate Fowle (Executive Director, Independent Curators International, New York) and Chair: Okwui Enwezor (Director, Haus der Kunst, Munich)
5pm Frieze Projects
Rick Moody (Writer, New York)
Sunday 6 May
1pm — On Gerhard Richter's "Atlas"
Robert Storr (Artist, Critic, Curator and Dean, Yale School of Art)
3pm — On Land Occupation
Saskia Sassen (Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology Columbia University, New York), Mitch Cope (Artist and Co-founder, Poert House Productions, Detroit) Andrea Geyer (Artist, New York) and Chair: Joseph Grima (Editor in Chief, Domus magazine)
Monday 7 May
1pm — Taryn Simon (Artist, New York)
3pm — Collection Cartographies
Wassan Al-Khudairi (Director, Mathaf, Doha) Hans-Michael Herzog (Chief Curator, Daros Latin America, Zurich and Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro) Walter Seidl (Curator, Kontakt, The Art Collection of Erste Group and Erste Foundation, Vienna) and Chair: Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy (Curator of Contemporary Art, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York)