Frieze Week 2016

What’s there to do, what should not be missed? These are our highlights:

Bruce Nauman at Blain|Southern

Natural Light, Blue Light Room by Bruce Nauman will be exhibited for the first time since its initial presentation in 1971. The iconic and significant architectural installation is best experienced during daylight hours.

Preview: Thursday 6 October, 4 - 8pm

Robert Therrien at Parasol Unit

Minimalism, Pop Art and Conceptualism. Parasol unit is currently showing Robert Therrien's first major solo show in Europe. Focussing on the first two decades of his artistic career, the exhibition brings together iconic sculptures, wall pieces and works on paper, including a number of early works that haven't been shown publicly for many years.

Donna Huanca at Zabludiwicz Collection

Channelling the themes of Donna Huanca’s exhibition Scar Cymbals, the performance Melting Hair/Water Scars features ten models and a human-scale ice sculpture.

Performance: Friday 7 October, 6-11pm

Tacita Dean at Frith Street Gallery, Golden Square

Frith Street Gallery is currently showing LA Exuberance, a collection of new works related to Tacita Dean’s time spent in Los Angeles. Her highly-acclaimed 2015 film Event for a Stage will also be screened alongside the exhibition. The film lasts for 50 minutes and you can pop in and out (screening times below). However, because of the film’s complex trajectory, it’s recommended to watch it from the start.

Screening: Tuesday to Friday at 11.00am, 12.15pm, 1.30pm, 2.45pm, 4.00pm, 5.15pm; Saturdays at 11.00am, 12.15pm, 1.30pm, 2.45pm, 4.00pm

The Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s: Works from the Sammlung Verbund at the Photographer’s Gallery

The Photographers’ Gallery presents forty-eight international female artists and over 250 major works from the Sammlung Verbund in Vienna, highlighting groundbreaking practices that shaped the feminist art movement. On view through 15 January 2017.

Power and Architecture Part 4: The afterlives of Modernity at Calvert 22

Fourth and final instalment of Power and Architecture - a season on utopian public space and the quest for new national identities across the post-Soviet world. In Part 4: The afterlives of Modernity, four artists consider the afterlife of utopia. The exhibition will be open through 8pm on Saturday.

Late Opening: Saturday 8 October, open until 8pm

Midnight Masala at The Empire Remains Shop

Midnight Masala is an Indian colloquial phrase for soft porn screened in late night movie theatres in India. It is also the name of the spice stall run by Shahmen Suku’s alter ego, Radha La Bia. Radha will inhabit Midnight Masala with a series of durational performances, creating a holistic experience that encompasses culinary science and spatial dynamics.

Performance: Monday 3 October – Sunday 9 October, 2–6pm

Douglas Gordon: I had nowhere to go Screening at Tate Modern

Douglas Gordon’s film I had nowhere to go is a sound-based portrait (just ten minutes worth of images) of 93-year-old filmmaker and writer Jonas Mekas’s life in exile. The screening is followed by a discussion with Douglas Gordon in person and Joans Mekas via Skype. Sharing at once a very personal yet increasingly universal story of exile, Mekas tells of his experiences in a Nazi forced labour camp, his five years in a displaced persons camp and his first years living as a young Lithuanian immigrant in Brooklyn.

Screening: Saturday 8 October, 7-9:30

Bedwyr Williams at the Barbican, The Curve

Drawing on the everyday quirks of his own life and the world around him, enter the world of Bedwyr Williams and the bizarre scenarios he conjures through his immersive installations.

Fiona Tan's Ascent at BFI Southbank as part of the BFI London Film Festival

Using dazzling images of Mount Fuji from across the history of photography, the mountain inspires the artist on both a philosophical and romantic journey.

Screening: Saturday 8 October, 9pm

Inside at Reading Prison

Reading Prison has opened to the public for the first time in its history to host this extraordinary Oscar Wilde project. Oscar Wilde was incarcerated at Reading Prison between 1895 and 1897, which led to his last great works; De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Some of the most remarkable and radical artists, writers and performers of our time have responded to Wilde’s work, the prison’s architecture and themes of imprisonment and separation. You can listen to Ralph Fiennes, Ragnar Kjartansson or Patti Smith reading Wilde’s De Profundis from the prison chapel or see artworks by Marlene Dumas, Wolfgang Tillmans or Nan Goldin displayed throughout the jail. Other artists featuring in the show are Ai Weiwei, Steve McQueen and Maxine Peake showing installations, writing, photography, video work and more.

Picks by ArtRabbit's Vivi Kallinikou. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.