London/Munich. Featuring more than 160 of the world’s
leading galleries, Frieze London takes place for the 17th time from
October 4-6, with preview days on October 2 and 3, 2019. As a
long-term partner of the fair, BMW will welcome the visitors to the
BMW Lounge at the fair and present a diverse program during the
opening days. As in previous years, BMW will also provide the VIP
shuttle service transporting the fair’s VIP guests with the 7 Series
and the X7.
BMW Open Work by Frieze
The acclaimed
Paris-based artist Camille Blatrix has been commissioned for the third
edition of BMW Open Work by Frieze. Curated by Attilia Fattori
Franchini, BMW Open Work gives artists a platform to push the
boundaries of their artistic work, starting the project with a
creative dialogue between arts, technology, engineering and design to
pursue their practice in innovative new directions. Blatrix’s
sculptures are interjected with coded references, creating emotionally
charged, uncanny objects that offer new relational possibilities.
Machine-like in their appearance, the works disguise the artist’s
labor, each sculpture combining industrially fabricated elements with
those that are meticulously handcrafted using a variety of traditional
techniques. Blatrix presents his new commission for BMW Open Work at
Frieze London 2019.
Titled “Sirens”, the project is the result of an
intense collaboration with BMW Individual, BMW Group’s division
specialized in car customization. Central to the project is a
sculpture which presents materials that are similar to those of a
vehicle but transformed into strange and unfamiliar forms, away from
automotive functionality. The main sculpture is presented in front of
a BMW M850i Convertible (combined fuel 10,8 – 10,6 l/100 km; combined
CO2 emissions: 246 – 241 g/km). This intentional display suggests a
dialogue between the artwork and the vehicle, a pull of attraction and
repulsion, familiar yet uncanny. The vehicle, placed between spaces,
also becomes a dialectical part of Blatrix’s installation, raising
questions about functionality and desire, looking at the sculpture and
recognizing itself in it, even if declined in a different
form.
Apart from the main work, a series of eerily synthetic
sculptures, accompanied by a mesmerizing sound work, transforms the
BMW Lounge into an intense but intimate environment.
The enchanting refrain “Come to my harms and let your worries
die”, sung by Blatrix’ “Sirens”, dramatizes the seductive,
fascinating pull exerted by functionality and industrial processes.
Making use of BMW Individual’s technical skills and craftsmanship,
“Sirens” thus explores the primal and emotional relationships
to labor, manufacture and materiality, creating a dialogue about
sources of desire.
BMW Open Work by Frieze
BMW Open Work by Frieze
is a major artistic initiative bringing together art, design and
technology in pioneering multi-platform formats. For its premier in
2017, artist Olivia Erlanger integrated a motion-sensitive sculpture,
audio and immersive fog in her work “Body Electric”; in 2018, Sam
Lewitt engaged with BMW intellectual property and engine production to
conceptually and physically explore the production cycle of a BMW
engine in “CORE (the ‘Work’)”.
BMW Group’s program during Frieze London 2019
To
celebrate the opening of Frieze London 2019, Soho House and BMW i host
an art talk at Shoreditch House. In conversation with Miranda Sawyer,
multimedia artist Nástio Mosquito and musician Billy Childish will
debate about the question “Why bother with art when music exists?”.
Soho House and BMW i have been cooperating internationally in the
creation of events and experiences focusing on contemporary art,
innovation and design.
To learn more about this year’s BMW Open Work by Frieze
commission, BMW and Frieze invite you to an art talk with the artist
Camille Blatrix, curator Attilia Fattori Franchini and Thomas Girst,
Head of BMW Group Cultural Engagement, on October 3, 2019 at the BMW
Lounge at Frieze London from 3.00 to 4.00 pm.
For further questions please contact:
Doris
Fleischer
BMW Group Corporate and Governmental
Affairs
Cultural Engagement
Telephone: +49-151-601-27806
Prof Dr Thomas Girst
BMW Group Corporate and Governmental
Affairs
Head of Cultural Engagement
Telephone: +49-89-382-24753
www.press.bmwgroup.com
E-Mail: presse@bmw.de
www.frieze.com
E-Mail: press@frieze.com
About Frieze
Frieze is the world’s leading
platform for modern and contemporary art for scholars, connoisseurs,
collectors and the general public alike. Frieze comprises three
magazines—frieze, Frieze Masters Magazine and Frieze Week— and four
international art fairs—Frieze London, Frieze Masters, Frieze New York
and Frieze Los Angeles. Additionally, Frieze organizes a program of
special courses and lectures in London through Frieze Academy.
Frieze was founded in 1991 by Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp,
with the launch of frieze magazine, the leading international magazine
of contemporary art and culture. In 2003, Sharp and Slotover launched
Frieze London art fair, which takes place each October in The Regent’s
Park, London. In 2012, they launched Frieze New York, which occurs
each May in Randall’s Island Park, and Frieze Masters, which coincides
with Frieze London in October and is dedicated to art from ancient to
modern. In 2018, Frieze announced the launch of Frieze Los Angeles,
which opened February 14–17, 2019 at Paramount Pictures Studios, Los
Angeles. In 2016 Frieze entered into a strategic partnership with
Endeavor, a global entertainment, sports and content company.
About Camille Blatrix
Camille Blatrix (*1984 in
Paris) graduated from the Ecolé nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de
Paris. Solo exhibitions include: La Verriére, Bruxelles (upcoming);
Unlimited, Art Basel (2019); Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation
d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris (2019); Kunstverein
Braunschweig, (2018); Taylor Macklin, Zurich (2018); CCA Wattis
Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2016); and Mostyn,
Wales (2015). Blatrix has additionally participated in group
exhibitions at: Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard Galleries, NY (2018);
Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City (2016), FRAC Île-de-France,
Paris (2016); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015); and Sculpture Center, New
York (2015). Furthermore, he partook at the Lyon Biennale (2015) and
in 2014, Blatrix won the Prize Fondation d’entreprise Ricard.
About Attilia Fattori Franchini
Attilia Fattori
Franchini is an independent curator and writer based in London. She is
co-founder of the not for profit platform Opening Times and
contributes critical essays and reviews to international publications.
She is the curator of BMW
Open Work by Frieze; Curva
Blu, a residency project in Favignana, Sicily; Falling
Awake, a film program for Vienna Contemporary and is currently
preparing upcoming exhibitions in Naples and Milan. Past projects
include: 061 Termoli Art
Prize, Italy (2019); Could you visit me in dreams? as part of curated_by 2018, Vienna; Red Lake
at Point Centre
for Contemporary Art, Nicosia (2018); ARS17+ at Kiasma, Museum, Helsinki (2017);
Europa and the Bull at LambdaLambdaLambda, Pristina, Kosovo (2016);
Kuvan Kevät, Kuvat Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki (2015); Bold
Tendencies, London (2015); and HAND, Barbican Centre, London (2013).
About BMW Group’s Cultural Commitment
For almost
50 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in over 100
cultural cooperations worldwide. The company places the main focus of
its long-term commitment on contemporary and mod- ern art, classical
music and jazz as well as architecture and design. In 1972, three
large-scale paintings were created by the artist Gerhard Richter
specifically for the foyer of the BMW Group’s Munich headquarters.
Since then, artists such as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Daniel Barenboim,
Jonas Kaufmann and architect Zaha Hadid have co-operated with BMW. In
2016 and 2017, female artist Cao Fei from China and American John
Baldessari created the next two vehicles for the BMW Art Car
Collection. Besides co-initiatives, such as BMW Tate Live, the BMW Art
Journey and the “Opera for All” concerts in Berlin, Munich, Moscow and
London, the company also partners with leading museums and art fairs
as well as orchestras and opera houses around the world. The BMW Group
takes absolute creative freedom in all its cultural activities for
granted – as this initiative is as essential for producing
groundbreaking artistic work as it is for major innovations in a
successful business.
In London, additional partnerships include the BMW Classics in
Trafalgar Square where BMW hosts an annual live concert with the
London Symphony Orchestra free of charge to the public. The brand also
co-initiated the live-art focused format ‘BMW Tate Live’ together with
Tate Modern.
Further information: www.bmwgroup.com/culture
and www.bmwgroup.com/culture/overview
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/BMWGroup
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/BMWGroupView
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https://www.linkedin.com/company/bmwgroup/