‘With La Noche Del Cisne, I always had the feeling that we were just doing it for fun.’

– Pia Camil

The May issue of frieze leads with an oral history of La Noche del Cisne, a cabaret night founded by artists Pia Camil and PJ Rountree in their shared studio in Mexico City. Plus, an extensive dossier on contemporary photography, featuring John Berger, Jack Halberstam, Julian Irlinger, Graciela Iturbide, Charlotte Jansen, Zoe Leonard, Zanele Muholi, Sophie Thun and five emerging photographers – Marcel Pardo Ariza, Koral Carballo, Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Paul Niedermayer and Cameron Ugbodu.

Oral History: La Noche del Cisne

‘We had no idea what to expect or if anyone would even turn up, and we really just used the materials at hand.’ – PJ Rountree. A look back on the storied cabaret night in Mexico City – with contributions by Alejandra Acosta Chávez, Pia Camil, Susana Vargas Cervantes, Don Charles, Brenda Munguía, Luis Pablo Osorio, Kristin Reger, PJ Rountree and Alberto Perera.

Photography Now 

‘As art practitioners, we can encourage or support those who want to become the next generation of artists.’ – Zanele Muholi. The issue closes with a special dossier dedicated to contemporary photography, including essays on the medium’s most pressing issues and interviews with acclaimed and emerging artists.

Also featuring  

In the features: Simon Wu profiles Kayode Ojo, whose shiny sculptural configurations reflect the art world’s taste back at itself; in ‘1,500 words’, Patrik Sandberg dives into the world of the legendary gay filmmaker James Bidgood, who died in January; ahead of a large public installation on Governor’s Island in New York, Charles Gaines speaks with Harmony Holiday about seeing faces, trees and the bigger picture. Plus, an exclusive extract from a forthcoming book of Philip Guston’s composed notes, sketches, letters and pictures, I Paint What I Want to See (2022).

Columns: Do It Yourself

Patrick Kurth speaks to Siddhartha Lokanandi, the owner of the Berlin bookshop Hopscotch Reading Room; Rory O’Connor examines the playful cinema of director Hong Sang-Soo; artist Megan Plunkett tells Diana Hamilton about her work as an unlicensed private investigator; Paige K. Bradley profiles experimental broadcaster Montez Press Radio. Plus, Richard Hawkins on the painter Forrest Bess’s correspondence with one of the 20th century’s greatest thinkers, psychoanalyst Carl Jung.

Plus, Marko Gluhaich responds to a single work by Rose Salane, featured in The Whitney Biennial. Going Up, Going Down charts what’s hot and what’s not in the global art world, and, finally, the latest iteration of our Lonely Arts column.

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