Whitewall caught up with Frieze Art Fair Co-Director Matthew Slotover, to talk about what's new at this year's fair.
WHITEWALL: You started Frieze along with Amanda Sharp in 2003 after the success of the magazine Frieze. How do you think your background in publishing affected your approach to an art fair?
MATTHEW SLOTOVER: It’s unusual in the art world but in other industries it’s not unheard of. So I think what happens if you’re a magazine is you know all the people in your world already. You’re in the middle of it so the galleries are the exhibitors and the readers are the visitors to the fair. So you have the relationships and you understand how it all works but what we didn’t have was any logistical experience.
WW: This will be the seventh year of Frieze. What are you looking forward to about this year's fair?
MS: The big change this year is the new section we’ve introduced called “Frame” which is 30 galleries under six years old doing solo projects. We’re really excited about that, we’ve got a fantastic list of people form all over the world. It’s great to have an opportunity to have new galleries that you might be introducing to people for the first time. I think that as the fair grew up over the last seven years the galleries grew up with us and as did the collectors and this would refresh it with new people.
WW: Tell me how the idea for this section came about? I remember at the Armory show this year some of the highlights were the solo booths because they stood out and could be curated well.
MS: Absolutely. It’s a risk for a gallery commercially but I think in the end for the gallery it always pays off because you get a lot of attention. In the gallery booths this year I know at least three or four of the big galleries who are doing solo projects. Sadie Coles is doing Hilary Lloyd, Stephen Friedman is doing Jim Hodges, so I think there will be more of that even outside Frame.
WW: You've said that Frieze "isn't a museum, it's not a gallery, it's a five day event which is something to have fun with." Fairs are often used as a way to measure the state of the market, though.
MS: If anyone can ever do that. It is a point where the whole art world comes together and London in October is one of those times a year when there is a lot of talking, new relationships, commerce as well, and things do happen because of the fair which is great, that’s our idea. Judging exactly what happens when there are 50,000 people coming, each having a different experience is difficult. It’s hard to draw conclusions.
WW: Last year's fair was called "sobering" in media coverage - and many looked towards it as a test for the art market after the fall of the financial system. Are you optimistic about how sales will fair one year later?
MS: I do, last year was literally two weeks after Lehman Brothers fell and it was a very nerve wracking unusual situation for everyone. Funny enough, during the fair and during the set up it was one of the more relaxing fairs we had because people felt like we’re all in this together. I think after six years or so it becomes a bit of a family and it’s more than a straight forward, take-it-or-leave it business relationship. So we all got to know each other quite well and there was a lot of goodwill towards each other.
I think it is different now. I think people understand the environment a bit better and have made adjustments that they needed to make. Pretty much everyone is still in business which is not something people were predicting. So it doesn’t seem to have hit as hard as predicted. Its certainly more of an optimistic environment now than it was six months ago.
WW: During the week of fair, what is your day-to-day role as director?
MS: Well the events all start the Saturday night before the fair so there are openings and dinners every night and we try to get around to as much as possible. During the fair what’s important for us is to try and make contacts with all of the galleries. We talk to them about what they’ve brought, how the fair is going for them, what’s right, what’s wrong, and how we can do better next year. And its difficult, we worked out that if we talk to every gallery at the fair we’d only have ten minutes for each gallery.
There is also a bit of a job with the committee looking at what the galleries brought. That’s part of the committees judgment is the presentation brought to the fair. Maybe there are places where we could arrange things a bit better for next year. It’s funny because you get five days to really examine what you’ve worked all year on and then you get a whole year to improve based on those five days so you’re really sucking in as much information as possible.
It’s our favorite week of the year. It’s really enjoyable for us. It is a bit like having a party and seeing all these people you haven’t seen for a long time.
