Astha Butail chosen for next BMW Art Journey. India-based artist to explore Israel, the United Kingdom and India.

Munich/Basel. Art Basel and BMW are delighted to
present Astha Butail (represented by GALLERYSKE, New
Delhi, Bangalore) as the next BMW Art Journey winner. The
international jury selected her unanimously from a shortlist of three
artists whose works were exhibited in the Discoveries sector at this
year’s Art Basel show in Hong Kong.

Her winning project titled “In the Absence of Writing”, is concerned
with memory and living traditions that are passed down through
teaching and oral poetry. It, in the artist’s words, will be “a homage
to the intangible oral traditions that are still alive today.”
Butail’s research on systems of cultures started in 2009, when she
began learning Sanskrit and memorized a collection of hymns. For the
BMW Art Journey, Butail plans to investigate the Zoroastrian Avesta,
Jewish Oral Torah and Indian Veda traditions by observing and
recording their different memory techniques and interviewing scholars
and practitioners of each tradition. The journey will lead through the
cities of Yazd (Iran), Jerusalem (Israel), London (United Kingdom),
Varanasi, Pune, New Delhi and Mumbai (India).  

Art Basel and BMW will collaborate with the artist to document the
journey and share it with a broader public through print publications,
online and social media.

The international experts awarding Butail’s proposal were
Claire Hsu, Director, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong;
Bose Krishnamachari, President, Kochi-Muziris
Biennale, India; Matthias Mühling, Director,
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau, Munich;
Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator of Asian Art, and
Senior Advisor, Global Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York;
and Pauline J. Yao, Curator Visual Art, M+, Hong Kong.

The jury selected the winner after an intensive series of
deliberations and noted the strengths and originality of each
proposal. After the selection, the jurors were united in their support
of the winning proposal. They applauded Butail’s journey concept for
the depth of its research and its multidimensional approach. “We were
struck by its sensitivity and range, and how it expands upon the
artist’s prior practice of investigating her own history and
identity”, the jury said in a joint statement. “The journey brings
together ethnography, spirituality, and sociology. We were especially
taken by Astha Butail’s interest in tracking down endangered oral
traditions, which she will document with the tools of an artist and
interactions with scholars and spiritual leaders. In a digital age,
when knowledge is fragmented, meaning is evanescent, and face-to-face
contacts are fleeting, this project reconnects us to a slower world,
where ideas were shared through deep and sustained personal
interactions. Last but not least, we are excited that this Art Journey
will bring the artist to regions that previous artists in the series
have not yet visited.”

In addition to Ashta Butail, the shortlisted artists from the
Discoveries sector for emerging artists at the 2017 Art Basel show in
Hong Kong were Julian Charrière represented by
Dittrich Schlechtriem, Berlin and Lin Ke
represented by BANK, Shanghai.

Launched in 2015, the BMW Art Journey is a collaboration between Art
Basel and BMW, created to recognize and support emerging artists
worldwide. The award is open to artists who are exhibiting in the
Discoveries and Positions sectors in the Hong Kong and Miami Beach
shows of Art Basel, respectively. Two judging panels comprised of
internationally renowned experts meet first to select a shortlist of
three artists from the sector, who are then invited to submit
proposals for a journey aimed to further develop their ideas and
artistic work. The jury reconvenes to choose a winner from the three proposals.

Past winners of the BMW Art Journey include sound and performance
artist Samson Young presented by a.m. Space, Hong
Kong at Art Basel’s Hong Kong show in 2015, who is representing Hong
Kong at the 2017 Venice Biennale; German video artists Henning
Fehr
and Philipp Rühr presented by Galerie
Max Mayer, Dusseldorf at Art Basel’s Miami Beach show in 2015; British
artist Abigail Reynolds presented by Rokeby, London
at Art Basel’s show in Hong Kong in 2016 as well as Max Hooper
Schneider
who was recently announced as the fourth winner
and is presented by High Art, Paris at Art Basel’s Miami Beach show in 2016.

The next round of selections for the BMW Art Journey will take place
during the 2017 edition of Art Basel in Miami Beach, where on December
7, 2017 the three shortlisted artists from the Positions sector will
be announced. The next winner of the BMW Art Journey will be presented
in spring 2018.

BMW is a global partner of Art Basel and has supported Art Basel’s
three shows in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong for many years.

For further information about the artist and the project, please
visit: www.bmw-art-journey.com