Issue 233
‘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 Gordon, Jean 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.