Issue 112
Jan - Feb 2008

In its annual round-up frieze looks back over 2007 by asking 23 critics and curators from around the world to choose what, and who, they feel to be the most significant shows and artists of the past year, and to reveal what they are looking forward to in 2008.

Looking back, Vivian Rehberg visits the Lyon Biennial 2007, Martin Herbert assesses the 1st Athens Biennial and Dominic Eichler reflects on the 10th Istanbul Biennial.

James Trainor talks to Douglas Fogle about the forthcoming 55th Carnegie International, Adam Szymczyk and Elena Filipovic, the curators of the 5th Berlin Biennale discuss what lies ahead, Andrew Hunt considers Jan Verwoert’s plans for the second Art Sheffield and Jon Bywater anticipates the 16th Biennale of Sydney.

In the magazine’s ongoing series of City Reports, Aaron Schuster and Vivian Rehberg explore Brussels, a city whose sardonic humour, cultural treasures and cheap rents are attracting an increasing number of artists to work in the Belgian capital.

From this issue

Is a booming market bad for art?

BY Nancy Spector |

frieze asked the following critics and curators from around the world to choose what, and who, they felt to be the most significant shows and artists of 2007

frieze asked the following critics and curators from around the world to choose what, and who, they felt to be the most significant shows and artists of 2007

frieze asked the following critics and curators from around the world to choose what, and who, they felt to be the most significant shows and artists of 2007

frieze asked 23 critics and curators from around the world to choose what they are looking forward to in 2008

Curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, the 16th Biennale of Sydney opens this June, aiming to explore the dynamics and multiple meanings of revolution

BY Jon Bywater |

The second Art Sheffield festival opens this February; its themes of exhaustion and overwork a poignant reflection of the city’s character

BY Andrew Hunt |

Enrico David is an artist based in London. In 2008 his work will be included in a survey of Italian art and design of the last 40 years at the Palazzo Grassi, Venice, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

For ‘00s – The History of a Decade That Has Not Yet Been Named’ Hans Ulrich Obrist and Stéphanie Moisdon employed a novel approach to curating in the new millennium

Curated by Hou Hanru, ‘Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary: Optimism in the Age of Global War’ was a solidly conceived exhibition that included 96 artists and collectives from 35 countries

Highlights of 2007

BY Thierry Jousse |

Retro culture and looking forward to the past

Moroccan pop to Latin American rap

BY Jace Clayton |

The opening of UCCA, a new non-profit arts centre in Beijing, is a cause for celebration

Douglas Fogle, curator of the next Carnegie International, talks to frieze about modesty, materiality and the meaning behind the show’s title: ‘Life on Mars’

The next Berlin Biennial will comprise two parts, ‘day’ and ‘night’, and be structured around three terms: ‘human’, ‘thing’ and ‘use’

‘Destroy Athens’ was tightly presented, solicitously scaled, engaged with its locality and indifferent to the tourist board

Religion and the art world

Answers on a postcard, please

Why have so many foreign artists moved to the Belgian capital? Is it the cheap rents and sardonic humour, Art Nouveau treasures and postwar architectural eyesores – or the fact that it spent much of 2007 without a government?

From relentless development in the Persian Gulf to the slow pace of building in Rome, Bradley Horn and Cathryn Drake survey the past year

BY Bradley Horn AND Cathryn Drake |

The literary highlights of 2007

BY Ali Smith |

A new book by Mark Godfrey examines how American abstract artists reacted to the Holocaust

BY Ross Wilson |

Discussing the past year in music, from feminism to the handcrafted underground

BY Ann Powers |

Highlights of 2007