Frieze Art Fair 2007 opens on Thursday in Regent’s Park in a series of huge tents designed by the architect Jamie Fobert. Upping the ante on previous years, this year’s fair won’t simply be about 150 galleries showcasing what is exciting and new in contemporary art, plus a few talks and peripheral projects. Five years after they founded Frieze, the directors, Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp, have put together a hugely ambitious series of events, performances and talks designed to move Frieze beyond an art fair and turn it into a larger event where art is made and the cultural agenda is set. But what about the casual, curious visitor? Where should you start and what should you see? Here’s our guide to getting the most out of London’s biggest art fair.

Best for . . . Ogling oligarchs

Frieze is one of a key handful of international contemporary art fairs for collectors, so the galleries remain at the core. Spot the serious buyers, some of whom will have flown in from America and Russia by private jets, at the stands for the top international galleries. They will be showing their finest pieces, most of which will cost upwards of £50,000. At White Cube (stand F13) the Chapman brothers will be performing some kind of live but, as yet undisclosed, art work, probably of a provocative nature, which will pull in the crowds for Jay Jopling’s wider stable of thoroughbred artists – including Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst, Gary Hume and Gilbert & George.

Other stalls to play Spot the billionaire are Timothy Taylor, Matthew Marks, Gagosian (which has neither labels nor price tags), Victoria Miro, Waddingtons and Hauser & Wirth.

Tarting up your own walls

For those looking to buy in a more modest price bracket, the new Store Gallery (F31) has interesting work by Dan Holdsworth and Claire Harvey. At Vitamin Creative Space (F28), you might find some works for under £1,000 by young Chinese artists. It might also be worth dropping in on the Mexican gallery Kurimanzutto (H3) where there will be an exhibition of work by Abraham Cruzville-gas and Gabriel Kuri.

Spotting the cutting edge before Saatchi does

A young Mexican conceptual artist, Mario Garcia Torres, has won this year’s Cartier Award providing the opportunity for an emerging artist living outside the UK to realise a project at the fair. Torres plans to present his work in the form of a lecture by the mythical film-world figure of Alan Smithee. It will be delivered by an actor playing Smithee and is designed to prompt us into an examination of authorship and authority.

Between 1968 and 1999, Hollywood film directors wanting to dissociate themselves from a film for reasons of content or politics, used the pseudonym Alan Smithee – an anagram of The Alias Men. Smithee has been credited with the directorship of dozens of films as well as several TV series, videos and even a guitar track. In 1998 Eric Idle made a comedy, Burn Hollywood Burn,about a director who wants to disown a film but cannot because his real name is Alan Smithee.

Entertaining the children

Elin Hansdóttir’s light installation in the entrance corridor to the fair is another of the Frieze Projects commissions. Entitled Peripheral, the space will be lit up with white light broken down into its spectral elements of red, green and blue. Children will love this because, as they leap along the corridor, they will be followed by multicoloured shadows on the walls.

To keep the kids occupied while you browse the gallery stalls, you can get them to keep a lookout for the Italian artist Gianni Motti’s commission. Motti worries about the collective stress that has built up in society as a result of the threat of terrorism. He has insisted, therefore, that one of the security guards patrolling the fair should, alongside his regular duties, also practise yoga. This “artwork” is called Preemptive Act.

A nice sit-down

For those with the time and inclination to sit and listen, or if your knees are getting creaky, there is a programme of talks, discussions and debates. The American art critic Dave Hickey will begin with the question of how one can sell art without selling out. Other speakers include the American artist Roni Horn and Ralph Rugoff, the director of the Hayward Gallery.

Films are also part of the fair, with Frieze Film presenting the premiere of four short commissions in the auditorium and shown on Channel 4’s Three Minute Wondersslot during the fair.

Nurturing mini-Matthew Barneys

If you’re a mother with a baby just on the verge of walking, the two of you could become performance artists at this year’s fair. The Slovakian-born conceptual artist Roman Ondák is proposing a piece of performance art for the Fair Gallery, involving a number of mothers encouraging their babies to take their first steps. You will have to perform on a podium, in front of several hundred people, but if you enjoy an audience and your baby isn’t going to be put off, it may be just the thing for you.

Taking a breather

By now you’re likely to need a restorative drink, but if you find yourself miles from a bar, the artist Kris Martin may come to your rescue and provide a moment of calm. Frieze Projects has commissioned him to make a piece of “sound art” entitled Mandi XVI, which will consist of a minute’s silence announced over the PA system, for no particular reason apart from encouraging the thousands of people there to embrace a moment of reflection. What we are being asked to consider, apparently, is “whether art’s traditional claims to gravitas can still be heard above the clamour of social networking and commerce”. Given the absence of spectacle in Martin’s work (he will simply count down insistently from 60 to 1 over the PA system), it will rest entirely upon the public response. In the highly competitive environment of an art fair, in which not only art works vie for attention, but collectors compete to snap up the best prizes in the shortest possible time, the idea of a minute’s silence is anathema. Good luck to you, Kris.

Frieze Art Fair 2007, Regent’s Park, London NW1 (www.friezeartfair.com 020-7833 7270), Thur-Sun, 11am-7pm

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