Issue 233
March 2023

‘Individual agency tends to be prioritized over collaborative, grass-roots initiatives.’

– Todd Ayoung

The March issue of frieze focuses on the work of collectives and cooperatives, containing an oral history of Atis Rezistans, a group of artists working in the Grand Rue neighbourhood of downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, including contributions from André Eugène, Leah GordonJean Claude Saintilus and Evel Romain. Plus, a roundtable conversation on the subject of ‘Why do collectives end?’ Featuring: Todd Ayoung (Godzilla: Asian American Arts Network), Patterson Beckwith (ART CLUB2000), Simon Bedwell (BANK), Vanessa Disler (Feminist Land Art Retreat) and Dena Yago (K-HOLE).

Oral History: Atis Rezistans

‘We work with the younger members of Atis Rezistans, preparing them for the future, in the hope that they will eventually take over from us.’ Members and affiliates of the Haitian art collective trace the group’s history and advocate for the importance of supporting the country’s next generation of artists.

Roundtable: The End of the Line

‘Collective endeavours that you start when you are young, dumb and full of potential can result in very different group dynamics.’ Former members of artist duos and groups discuss how and why art collectives form and eventually end.

Also featuring  

Jonathan Griffin profiles artist Ei Arakawa, known for his collaborative performances with artists and art historians; So Mayer asks how union activism shaped the UK’s collective filmmaking and film distribution practices; in ‘1,500 words’ artist Keith Piper recalls his memories of the influential BLK Art Group, a small informal grouping of art students of Black Caribbean descent based in the Midlands and north of England during the early-1980s.

Columns: Collective Crisis

The theme of the columns section is ecology and sustainability, including three profiles: Caitlin Chaisson on the Indigenous media group Karrabing Film Collective; Haeju Kim on ikkibawiKrrr, a visual research band that explores links between civilization, colonialism, ecology, humanity, natural phenomena and plants; Simon Wu on terra0, a group of developers, theorists and researchers studying the creation of hybrid ecosystems in the technosphere. Olamiju Fajemisin interviews artist Katherine Ball, a self-proclaimed ‘habitat for fungi and bacteria located on planet Earth’, and J. Morgan Puett on the history of the arts complex Mildred’s Lane.

Finally, Eva Díaz responds to a single work by Poncilí Creación. Plus, Going Up, Going Down charts what’s hot and what’s not in the global art world and the latest iteration of our Lonely Arts column.

 

From this issue

Artworks are secondary in the group’s struggle for stolen soil in Australia’s Northern Territory

BY Caitlin Chaisson | 06 MAR 23

The artist offers his personal recollections of co-founding a collective instrumental to the British Black Arts Movement in the 1980s

BY Keith Piper | 03 MAR 23

With Somxs Podemx, the duo revitalizes older models of street performance

BY Eva Díaz | 01 MAR 23

Using web3 technologies, the Berlin-based artist collective attempts to grant sovereignty to nature

BY Simon Wu | 27 FEB 23

The artist, who has long shared the authorship of his work, reaffirms his role as a catalyst and instigator

BY Jonathan Griffin | 24 FEB 23

So Mayer tracks the histories of collective filmmaking practices, often responding to the turbulence of British politics

BY So Mayer | 22 FEB 23

Members and affiliates of the Haitian art collective trace the group’s history and advocate for the importance of supporting the country’s next generation of artists

BY André Eugène, Evel Romain AND Leah Gordon | 22 FEB 23

Former members of artist duos and groups discuss how and why art collectives form, and eventually come to pass

The artist speaks about their recent actions at COP27 in Egypt and how collectivity can be reconsidered using microorganisms

BY Olamiju Fajemisin AND Katherine Ball | 22 FEB 23

A profile of the collective whose recent project highlights haenyeo – strong, independent divers from Jeju Island

BY Haeju Kim | 22 FEB 23

The constantly evolving event site uses perpetual adaptation and new notion of creative practice to face the challenges to sustainability

BY J. Morgan Puett | 22 FEB 23

At Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, the artists cold war-era ‘typewritings’ address systems of power through themes of nature, technology and war

BY Alex Turgeon | 12 JAN 23

A group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje brings together Roma artists from across Europe to explore a history of exclusion

BY Erëmirë Krasniqi | 11 JAN 23

Marking the centenary of the artist's birth, a retrospective at MMCA Deoksugung presents a survey of his most influential paintings and abstract sculptures

BY Liz Kim | 05 JAN 23

At P420, Bologna, the artist’s canny combination of materials fuels dark leaps of imagination

BY Ana Vukadin | 05 JAN 23

Characterized by a series of micro-shows, this year’s exhibition approaches postwar US imperialism through a multiplicity of lenses 

BY Margaret Kross | 04 JAN 23

An exhibition at the Smart Art Museum, Chicago, questions the role of the market and the possibility of pure aesthetics in single-coloured works

BY Alex Jen | 29 DEC 22

At Moderna Museet, Stockholm, the artist’s solo exhibition shows just how much her work has been absorbed into our collective imagination

BY Natasha Marie Llorens | 28 DEC 22

A major retrospective at M+, Hong Kong recounts the artist’s seven-decade career in her own words

BY Ophelia Lai | 27 DEC 22

At Peres Projects, Berlin, the artist’s new series dispels the limiting stereotype that women’s identities are based on the home

BY Eliza Levinson | 21 DEC 22

Paired with sculptures from the Nasher’s permanent collection, the artist’s new work explores the vulnerability of the body

BY Harley Wong | 20 DEC 22

A small retrospective at Centre Pompidou, Paris, strikes a balance between the artist’s unique brand of expressionist figuration and her activism

BY Wilson Tarbox | 19 DEC 22

At Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, a group exhibition is cast as a ‘constellation’ of Bruce Baillie’s influence

BY Ren Ebel | 15 DEC 22

At PROA21 in Buenos Aires, the artist showcases a series of new films which convey the lifeforce that permeates the cities where he lives and the communities that build them up

BY Samantha Ozer | 14 DEC 22

Featuring more than 50 years of work, the artist’s survey at Kunsthalle St. Annen, Lübeck, builds on his idiosyncratic system of shapes and symbols

BY Mitch Speed | 14 DEC 22

At Baltic, Gateshead, the artist’s first solo institutional exhibition examines the pernicious effects of Britain’s oil interests in the Kurdistan Region

BY Rosalie Doubal | 12 DEC 22

At Gianni Manhattan, Vienna, the artist evokes painful memories of childhood cruelty

BY Kathrin Heinrich | 08 DEC 22

In his first solo show in Los Angeles since 1984, at Parrasch Heijnen, the artist shows paper and canvas works that draw from global influences

BY Jonathan Griffin | 08 DEC 22

An ambitious group show at Michael Werner Gallery, London, curated by Andrew Bonacina, invites us to examine the possibilities of human representation through the works of 28 artists

BY Emily Steer | 05 DEC 22

At the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, the artist activates the archives of Scotland’s most influential carpet designers, James Templeton & Co Ltd and Stoddard International plc

BY Helen Charman | 01 DEC 22

At Damien & the Love Guru, Zurich, the artist’s new series presents a stylistic mashup of unsettling scenes

BY Mitchell Anderson | 30 NOV 22

At Kavi Gupta, Chicago, the artist debuts meditative paintings that are about their own making

BY Dmitry Samarov | 29 NOV 22

At Studio Voltaire, London, a new film narrated by Ben Whishaw asks why the intelligence services proved such an ideal calling for gay men in the early 20th century

BY Alastair Curtis | 28 NOV 22

The artist’s survey exhibition at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art captures immateriality and the residues of loss

BY Nadine Khalil | 23 NOV 22

A two-venue homecoming exhibition at Palais de Tokyo and Lafayette Anticipations explores youthful silliness, romanticism and the pitfalls of restoring the past

BY Pablo Larios | 22 NOV 22

At Casey Kaplan, New York, the South African artist transforms everyday materials into colossal tapestries inspired by movements that characterize the dances of his homeland

BY Ian Bourland | 22 NOV 22

At The Shed, New York, figurative paintings on pardo paper lead us to reconsider our own positions in relation to artworks and museum spaces

BY Zoë Hopkins | 17 NOV 22

At Amant, Brooklyn, the women-led group show fluidly reimagines the mythological creature in a media-spanning exhibition

BY Cassie Packard | 15 NOV 22

An exhibition of the artist’s films at Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, examines the relationship between landscapes, archives and memories

BY Patrick Kurth | 15 NOV 22

An exhibition at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, unites the artist’s maritime works, exploring narratives of migration, power and trade  

BY Rosanna McLaughlin | 11 NOV 22

At Sprüth Magers, London, the artist transforms the galleries into a labyrinthine changing room dripping with anticipation of future performances

BY Juliet Jacques | 08 NOV 22

At Alison Jacques, London, the Turner Prize-nominated artist recasts Caribbean flora and quotidian objects as symbols of interconnectedness and care

BY Salena Barry | 31 OCT 22

At Maximillian William, London, the artist’s glamorous figures render viewers more than mere witnesses

BY Melissa Baksh | 27 OCT 22

An elegant retrospective at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, has striking contemporary resonance in a country that remains profoundly unequal

BY Julie Hrischeva | 25 OCT 22