LONDON— If you are going to London for the impending art fairs, you should be in training now. Frieze Art Fair is open to the public Oct. 15–18, and Zoo from the 16th to the 19th, but what takes place in the booths and tents is only a fraction of the cultural activity to be experienced during the week, when the London scene shows what it’s made of. Accept that it’s not possible to see everything worth seeing, and take comfort from knowing that for some, like John Baldessari, just getting to all the events they are directly involved in will be a challenge. Here is a selection to show you the full gamut of activities on offer, which may leave you exhausted.

Saturday, Oct. 10
Getting a head start on the weekend before the fairs is a good plan. British artist Tariq Alvi is talking about his exhibition at East End not-for-profit space Chisenhale at 2 p.m. Saturday, after which there will be time to check out "Pop Life: Art in a Material World" at Tate Modern, a useful barometer of the mood in museums these days. That evening Baldessari’s show opens at Sprüth Magers in the West End, and so starts his marathon: His Tate Modern exhibition "Pure Beauty" opens to the public Tuesday, Oct. 13, and on Friday, Oct. 16, he’s taking part in an unmissable discussion on the West Coast art scene of the 1960s, with fellow Californian Ed Ruscha, at the Royal Academy.

Sunday, Oct. 11
Sundays are normally a quiet day for commercial galleries, but not Hauser & Wirth, which will open its Subodh Gupta exhibition "Common Man" to the public on Oct. 11 and 18. It’s a great day to catch several projects from commissioning agency Artangel: Roger Hiorns’s installation Seizure, for which he coated the interior of a flat near the Elephant and Castle tube station in blue copper sulfate crystals, earning himself a nomination for this year’s Turner Prize; Karen Mirza and Brad Butler’s Museum of Non Participation, a collection of workshops, screenings, discussions, and performances to be found off the Bethnal Green Road out east; and Charles LeDray’s labor of love, "Men's Suits," in a former West End fire station.

Monday, Oct. 12
Monday is a manageable day, but there’s still enough to keep you busy. The Barbican hosts the alternative Free Art Fair (Oct. 12–18), which does what it says on the tin, as the Brits like to say; all the art is given away at the end of the fair to randomly selected applicants. While you’re in the famous Barbican, you can also see Polish artist Robert Kusmirowski put the final touches on his installation Bunker, which opens fully on Oct. 15, or catch the final days of “Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet, 1969–2009” in the Barbican Gallery. In the evening, the auction season kicks off at 7:30 on Oxford Street with a sale at Selfridges department store, where the works in the “Pandamonium” exhibition curated by Artwise — “retired” panda collection boxes transformed by artists and designers including Rachel Whiteread, Gavin Turk, and Jim Lambie — will be auctioned for the benefit of the World Wildlife Fund. From there it’s a short cab ride to Haunch of Venison at 6 Burlington Gardens for the private evening view of German painter Jonas Burgert’s show "Hitting Every Head."

Tuesday, Oct. 13
Committed art lovers will be up early to visit Anita Zabludowicz’s Project Space 176 for a breakfast opening from 9 a.m. on Tuesday; the current show there is “Pete and Repeat,” culled from Zabludowicz’s own impressive collection. Also worth a visit in North London is the nearby Camden Arts Centre, where you can see the exhibition "Head-Wig (Portrait of an Exhibition)," which is curated by artist Paulina Olowska and includes some of her own works. It kicks off the evening at 6:30 at Iniva back east, where top Indian artist N.S. Harsha talks about his ongoing exhibition with curator Tessa Jackson. But don’t dwell in this area too long, as the main action is in the West End, where, among others, Simon Lee Gallery opens with Heimo Zobernig; young gallery Josh Lilley opens the group show “A Broken Fall,” including Conrad Shawcross; Thomas Dane Gallery unveils its Walead Beshty exhibition “Production Stills”; and London grande dame Sadie Coles opens shows by big hitters Ugo Rondinone and John Bock. If art alone is not enough, Patti Smith will be performing at the opening of the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition “A Season in Hell.” And a hot ticket is the party hosted by Haunch of Venison tonight to celebrate 25 years of Parkett magazine.