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Waiting With {Sonic Support}

The Frieze Artist Award 2022, with Frieze Art Fair and Forma, London, UK, 2022

Abbas Zahedi, Waiting With {Sonic Support}, 2022. Open Mic performances at Frieze London 12-16 October 2022. © Abbas Zahedi. Co-commissioned by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze Artist Award 2022. Courtesy Frieze, Forma. Photo Forma
Abbas Zahedi, Waiting With {Sonic Support}, 2022. Open Mic performances at Frieze London 12-16 October 2022. © Abbas Zahedi. Co-commissioned by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze Artist Award 2022. Courtesy Frieze, Forma and Belmacz

Project Text

Frieze named Abbas Zahedi as the winner of the 2022 Frieze Artist Award, realized in partnership with Forma for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 2013, the award provides an emerging artist with the platform to debut an ambitious new commission on the occasion of Frieze London. Previous recipients of the Frieze Artist Award include Himali Singh Soin (2019), Alberta Whittle (2020) and Sung Tieu (2021).

Abbas Zahedi’s new work Waiting With {Sonic Support} will play host to an Open Mic each day of the fair.Located beside the entrance to Frieze in Regent’s Park, Abbas’ structure will be activated by performances between 12-16 October 2022, 3-4.30pm.

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Waiting With {Sonic Support}, 2022, is a prototype for a new form of civic infrastructure; conflating multiple sites: a bus stop – more generally, a public waiting area – a DIY bandstand, and a public support space. Responding to the particularities of Frieze London, Abbas Zahedi’s site-sensitive installation activates the fair’s threshold, to establish a speculative transport system for utopian daydreaming between its inside and outside.

Developed from Jean-Paul Sartre’s notion of bus stops as places to ‘achieve practical and theoretical participation in common being’, one first encounters Waiting With {Sonic Support} whilst approaching Frieze London. Echoing the form of a Central Asian Soviet-Era bus stop, Abbas’ co-designed waiting zone is a site of ensemble; a place where one can depart from the isolated individuality of our contemporary age – Sartre’s ‘plurality of isolations’ – by convening with others in a common interconnected space.

During Frieze London, this temporary structure will serve as a ‘metatopian’ performative environment, that hosts a number of open mic activations. Selected through an open submissions process, these open mics not only extend a gesture of conviviality to other artists and performers but allude to Abbas’ early creative practice as an emcee, spoken-word poet and community organiser. Embracing the legacies of DIY and pirate radio, each of these open-mic ensembles will be broadcast live into the heart of the Frieze London tent. Here, an indoor version of the installation will allow those inside to tune into the active space outside.

Zahedi’s winning commission was selected by a jury composed of leading industry figures including Eva Langret (Director of Frieze London), Isabella Maidment (Curator, Contemporary British Art, Tate), Maitreyi Maheshwari (Head of Programme , FACT Liverpool), Chris Rawcliffe (Artistic Director, Forma), and Sung Tieu (Artist and 2021 Frieze Artist Award Winner).

Artist Video Introduction


Abbas Zahedi: Winner of the Frieze Artist Award 2022. Commissioned by Freize, 2022

Open Mic Programme

Wednesday 12 October
Agnieszka Szczotka, Amir Hossein Kamaal Williams, Shepherd Manyika,Maria Mahfooz and Hugo Hutchins, Nikki Meftah, Ronnie Pope, Salma the Poet

Thursday 13 October
Amina Jama Avril Corroon, Daria Blum, James Bragg, Phoebe Wagner and Sally Barton, Toraigh Watson, Verity Birt, Yulin Huang

Friday 14 October
Daniel C. Blight, Ed Taylor, Francesca Augustine, Gbolade Oludare, Ingrid Berthon-Moine, J Frank, Khadeeja Hamid

Saturday 15 October
Gabrielle Brooks, Holly Slingsby, Jody DeSchutter, Kangudi Loka, L U C I N E, Luke Jaime Sutherland, Shirin Fathi, Soohyun Choi

Sunday 16 October
Abdollah Nafisi, assia ghendir, Bill Daggs, Carl Gent, Clémentine Bedos Harry Cross, John Costi, leon clowes, Mengting Zhuo

Encore – MP3 Submissions
Amir Hanjani, Andrew Pierre Hart, Ehsan Fathi, John Anthony, Lea Luka Sikau, Maite de Orbe, Marie-Louise Jones, Mohammed Elshimi, Patrick Cosgrove, Ramses Alexandre, Richard Chaffer, Richmond Cloverfield, Sam Harris, Scott Jones, Shepherd Manyika, Susie Green, Tot Taylor

Project Press

  • Frieze Art Fair in London, Patricia Grzonka for Monopol, 15 October 2022, source
  • Everything Worth Seeing At Frieze London 2022, Charlotte Jansen for Vogue UK, 12 October 2022 source
  • Ahead Of Frieze London 2022, Eva Langret Shares Her Top 5 Unmissable Moments, Felicity Carter for Forbes, 11 October 2022 source
  • Artist Abbas Zahedi: ‘I hijack galleries as spaces to grieve’, En Liang Khong for the Financial Times, 7 October 2022 source
  • Abbas Zahedi Invites Us To Play the Waiting Game, Eva Wilson for Frieze, 7 October 2022 source
  • Frieze London + Frieze Masters reveal ambitious curated programme, Mark Westall for FAD Magazine, 16 September 2022 source
  • Abbas Zahedi Wins Frieze Artist Award 2022, via ArtAsiaPacific, 8 July 2022 source
  • Emerging British artist Abbas Zahedi wins 2022 Frieze Artist Award, Lee Cheshire for The Art Newspaper, 6 July 2022 source
  • Abbas Zahedi Wins Frieze Artist Award 2022, via ArtForum, 6 July 2022 source
  • Abbas Zahedi: Winner of the Frieze Artist Award 2022, via Frieze, 6 July 2022 source

Further information about the project can be found on the Forma website source