The whole frenzy surrounding Frieze is still a bit of a shock to the British constitution, as of course this is a nation that practically considers Stonehenge a rather challenging new piece of art.

According to reviews of last year’s show, the ongoing love-hate relationship between London and contemporary art raged on. As Miranda Sawyer wrote in London’s daily paper, The Guardian (October 16, 2011), “Frieze art fair has become a monster. A giddy, hilarious, silly-shoed one that looks slightly like a hedge-fund manager, and slightly like a madcap genius and quite a lot of FUN. But still: a monster”. She goes on, “Frieze is an over-lit, over-peopled, overheated carnival of excess that has given me a couple of new images to mull over. I hold them close, to calm me down, and leave before my migraine kicks in. Tate Modern’s latest spectacular show in the Turbine Hall coincides with the Frieze fair and a proliferation of gallery displays. Is this conclusive proof that Britons are no longer scared of art?”

And this from the city’s most liberal paper.  Yet one has to tip one’s hat to a City that spawned an artist made internationally famous by floating dead sharks in formaldehyde and made millions lining up pill bottles in perspex cases, and so to use the local lingo, Frieze has now become — for good or for evil –“a goer”.

Now referring to itself as Frieze/London, after the first successful Frieze New York took place last spring in the Big Apple, the London 2012 fair has the usual, yet still extraordinary line-up of star artists, film-makers, curators and collectors, and in all likelihood the occasional celeb.

Although the weather in London in October can be as exquisite as Indian Summer, or as miserable as rainy midwinter, the traveling tribe of contemporary art groupies cannot afford to miss Frieze — now considered — along with the Basels (Swiss and Floridian), the Armory in NY, and perhaps, Documenta in Kassel, Germany — one of the most important showcases for contemporary art from across the globe (see sidebar on London’s evolving views on art from the Gulf).

This year, along with 175 of the world’s leading contemporary galleries, all elbowing to show, and best case scenario sell, the hottest work on the market, the fair will also boast a new and quite good, film series; a “London Talks” program; and the now requisite site-specific outdoor installation program, de rigeur at any self-respecting art fair.

Curated by Sarah McCrory, this year the installation portiion, called, Frieze Projects includes five specially commissioned projects as well as the Emdash Award, which each year enables an emerging artist working outside the UK to present a new work at Frieze London.

The artists commissioned to make site-specific work for Frieze London 2012 are: Thomas Bayrle, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, DIS magazine, Grizedale Arts / Yangjiang Group and Joanna Rajkowska.

Sarah McCrory said of the programme: ‘This year’s projects vary greatly in scale and pace; there is an examination of the use-value of art by Grizedale Arts and Yangjiang Group in the form of a structure, which will act as a forum and host a number of artists who produce food, chaotic dining events, performance and talks, whereas Joanna Rajkowska’s outdoor work will invite contemplation and reflection.

Asli Çavuşoğlu’s recreation of a crime drama scene will look at the unlikely parallels between the production of murder mysteries and decisions made whilst making art, with artwork functioning as both prop and murder weapon. DIS magazine’s unique approach to the production of imagery will be a response to the fair, and a design by Thomas Bayrle will be dramatically woven into the fabric of the fair.’

The London Talks program includes fairly esoteric panels on themes such as: ‘Deeply Superficial,’ an analysis of the aesthetic and economic phenomenon of the stock image as source material for art; and of particular interest to the Gulf: ‘Being Difficult,’ looking at how refusal can define responsibility within the context of the Middle East; and ‘Attention! Criticism and its Distractions’, which will consider what kinds of concentration are at work in art criticism today.

The artists commissioned to make new work for Frieze Film are: Bertrand Dezoteux, Patricia Esquivias, Jimmy Merris, John Smith and Wu Tsang & Nana Oforiatta-Ayim.

This year’s commissioned artists present a range of film-based practice that deals with ideas including those of history and memory, be it personal or collective. The way narrative is conveyed and constructed around individuals, buildings or objects and place is a theme that runs through the programme through imagined journeys, fictitious events and romantic relationships.

The nearly 200 dealers, not surprisingly, are dominated in number by the biggest names from the U.S. and the U.K.  The usual suspects, Jay Jopling and his now enormous White Cube (London) Gallery, and Larry “go-go” Gagosian’s, aptly named, Gagosian Gallery (everywhere) are certain to steal headlines — as they do every year — considered as they are “career makers”.

These two cozy superpowers, and their colleagues from the States and Briton, are followed in number by the chic-EST dealers in Paris, Germany and Switzerland.

And after the Europeans, a nod to the popularity of artists from the so-called BRIC nations: Brazil, Russia, India and China — is in evidence with no few than five galleries from Brazil (in a tie with Belgium) three from India and two from China: Long March Space from Beijing, and Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou, Guangdong.

Artists one can bet on to grab the brass, or in this case, the platinum ring, include sizzling still-young conceptual hotshots including; Tobias Zeilony, John Ahearn, Uri Aran, Latifa Echakhch, Joel Kyack, Virginia Overton, Tim Rollins,K.O.S., Jeppe Hein, Ulla von Brandenburg, Samara Golden, and Superflex: the super-trendy Danish art group which is the undoubted flavor of the year.

Artists, still trendy, yet with slightly more mature markets such as Douglas Gordon, Cerith Wyn Evans, Piotr Uklanski, Carson Nicolae, or Anish Kapoor — just to grab a few names out of a hat — will undoubtedly bring out the chequebooks.  But for the serious action, it’s always fun to watch out for the behind the scenes trading of the big three of Contemporary art in our time: Rothko, Richter and Rauschenberg, whose masterworks regularly bring fortunes to rival the Crown Jewels.