Fairs
United Kingdom
What’s behind the dented tent?
Artist removes Frieze Projects sculpture
By Robert Curran and Anny Shaw. From Frieze daily edition
Published online: 14 October 2009
A monumental sculpture intended to provide an arresting start to this year’s Frieze was dismantled last night and taken away at the artist’s request. Monika Sosnowska’s work was designed to appear as if a concrete monolith had crash-landed on a corner of the Frieze tent, as part of Frieze Projects. But the Polish artist said the work appeared “fake” once it was realised, in plywood coated in jesmonite. Taking it down “was the only honest thing I could do,” she said.
According to the artist and Neville Wakefield, the curator of Frieze Projects, the work still remains—in concept, as a dent in the tent. “We both agreed that it was better without the object,” he said. “It was too literal.” As with all Frieze Projects, the work was largely funded by EU grants. Wakefield, however, does not see the dismantling of the work as wasteful. “Frieze Projects is unique in that it allows artists to have a voice,” he said. “The great thing is that we can support Monika’s decision.”
The artist said: “Perhaps [the project] got lost in translation.” The work will still form part of Frieze Projects, even in its less corporeal form. “It is now a work in progress,” said Sosnowska.
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