A dramatization of the past and a focus on the re-presentation of Modernism seems to be an overall presence haunting the fair. Sculpture is back with many examples of art and of design of the ‘50s. This was also evident at the contemporaneous, but smaller Zoo art fair, born three years ago and now moved from its original venue to the Royal Academy of Art. It must be that the change did some good, because indeed this year Zoo seemed the most hospitable and interesting among the fairs in town.

Scaling down the magnitude reached by Frieze, Zoo presented an excellent selection of galleries, artists, and last but not least, a manageable structure. The participation of international galleries was welcomed this year, along with the requisite London based spaces – initially at the core of the fair.

Travesía Cuatro from Madrid presented a complex and amazingly simple video piece by Inaki Bonillas and Gonzalo Lebrija. Titled "The Hyper-realism of Simulation", it showed two people playing squash, while a text in voice over debated about space, time, absence and its representation. It offered a moment of distance, a mental pause, from the immediacy and noise of the fair. A new sculpture by artist Graham Hudson, a merzbau of found materials sold to Charles Saatchi and shown at Rockeby, raised a lot of attention. Rightly so, since it was one of the best pieces at Zoo, while a video by Los Super Elegantes, discretely placed on a small monitor on a side wall, mixing glamour and irony, and accompanied by a seducing soundtrack (which I still find myself humming), was an eye-catcher at Blow de La Barraís booth, also presenting works by Miltos Manetas and Stephan Brüggeman.

176 gallery, an exhibition space opened this year by collector Anita Zabludowicz and curated by Lizzie Neilson had a major presence here, developing a show that included selections of the collection that currently comprises over 1000 works by more than 350 contemporary artists from 33 countries. The Zabludowicz Collection is one of the first in the UK to focus on emerging artists on a global level and its strength lies in its focus on emerging artists of the late 20th and 21st Centuries. Increasingly, art fairs encourage the presence of institutions – and in fact at Zoo one could see the presence of many non-profit spaces such as PEER, which had a show of editions and ephemera which well reflected their program, or M+R Projects which dedicated the stand to a solo presentation of Marie Jan Lund and Nina Jan Beier – however the presence of a private collection hosted in the frame of an art fair was definitively a new feature.

In town

After visiting the fairs, it was a mesmerizing experience to enter Louise Bourgeoisís retrospective at Tate Modern: it made one think of the continuing relevancy of her work, and revalue the currency of many of the up and coming artists at the fairs. But even without the corollary of Frieze and Zoo, this will stay a most strong exhibition for the choice of the work. The critical and curatorial approach wonderfully frame the artistís vision in the context of a century of art and leaves one with a better understanding of her work.

The Turbine Hall downstairs was presenting the last Unilever Seriesí commission, a new work by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo –who was having a simultaneous solo show at White Cube gallery. The work consisted in a small crack that propagated from the main entrance of the museum to the entire length of the gallery, developing in a large cut. An earthquake that shacked the basement of the institution, a border which once acknowledged cannot help but become larger but also, mostly, the negative of a sculpture.

It was fortunate coincidence to see the installation Tropicalia by Helio Oiticica, recently acquired by the Tate Modern, and to then visit gallery Blow de La Barra in Heddon Street where the sculptures by Erika Verzutti pointed out the influence Oiticica still has on the younger generation. The three objects disseminated in the space seemed to mock the stereotypical approach that Europeans sometime still demonstrates when exploring Latin American art.

Verzuttiíshow somehow paired Rodney Grahamís solo exhibition at Lisson Gallery: a critique of the modernist myths and its inherent failure summarized by the main piece of the exhibition, a large light box representing the artists in pajamas painting à la Morris Louis, accompanied by a series of framed canvases that blatantly copied modernist masterpieces.

-Cecilia Canziani is a curator living and working in Rome.