Paris. After twenty wonderful years spent supporting
photographers and ten years of the BMW Residency, BMW Group France is
now reorienting its support for the arts and reinventing its model.
While its new program continues to focus on emerging work,
experimentation and image-making, the scheme’s scope has been
broadened to include all visual arts, with a scholarship offered to an
artist-curator duo and a budget available for researching and
producing works.
The human-machine relationship, creativity and innovation, support
and commitment are all key BMW Group values. Support is evident in the
patron company’s close collaboration with the artists. It works with
them at each step of the way, respects their vision, enables them to
take bold steps, and provides them with the material and financial
resources required to complete their project. Commitment is reflected
in our belief that involvement in cultural patronage a self-evident
step, since it initiates an emotional conversation with our society.
Everything makes sense in this light. A people-focused approach is a
key element of our vision.The freedom to create is equally vital to
artists and BMW as a designer of disruptive innovations for
sustainable and responsible mobility.
BMW ART MAKERS: a program supporting experimental and visual
art to see differently.
“In a world full of
uncertainty, BMW ART MAKERS represents an opportunity for emerging
talent in the visual arts world. The program encourages artists to
take an alternative perspective on the major issues facing the modern
world and on key societal challenges. They are given complete freedom
to develop this perspective through experimentation and completion of
a multi-dimensional visual arts project”, comments Vincent
Salimon, CEO of BMW Group France.
For 10 years, the BMW Residency, under the remarkable and demanding
artistic direction of François Cheval, has accompanied laureates who
questioned the new practices linked to the history of photography at
the Nicéphore Niépce Museum, and then new techniques and the
relationship to the image at GOBELINS.
Today, BMW Group France is now seeking to address the profound
societal change currently taking place. The BMW ART MAKERS new program
supports projects that essentially involve producing images, but also
entail exploration of all contemporary image-making dimensions and
formats (photography, film, video and computer-generated, virtual,
digital images and their presentation to audiences), choosing and
researching media, reproduction techniques, and dissemination networks.
BMW ART MAKERS: a scholarship and production budget for an
artist-curator duo seeking to complete a joint artistic
project.
Since two brains are better than one, BMW ART
MAKERS is seeking to bring together and support an emerging visual
artist and a curator through its calls for applications for which the
two parties must apply jointly. This partnership draws on the strength
of a strong, like-minded duo to generate the trust and competitive
spirit required for completing a major project from the initial idea
to the end work. The curator is just as important as the artist in
terms of implementing an artistic project and ensuring a concrete
piece of work results from it.
This is the first time that a program of this scale offer a curator
support through a visual arts project scholarship alongside an artist.
S/he will perform the role of artistic director, scenographer and
designer, ensuring that the project is completed to the artistic
standards, time frame and budget specified in the call for applications.
BMW ART MAKERS: unique mentoring provision from jury
members.
Since big ideas need plenty of support to get
off the ground, members of the project selection jury will also act as
mentors during the creative process. BMW Group France would like to
sincerely thank these major figures in the art world for accepting
this role so enthusiastically and ensuring that the project and work
meet the highest standards.
The BMW ART MAKERS jury consists of:
- Maryse Bataillard, Head of Cultural Patronage at BMW France
- Léa Bismuth, curator and art critic
- Florence Bourgeois, Director of Paris Photo
- Hervé Digne, collector
- Nathalie Mamane Cohen, collector
- Chantal Nedjib, photography image consultant
- Jérôme Poggi, Galerie Jérôme Poggi
- Christoph Wiesner, Director of Rencontres d’Arles
BMW ART MAKERS: financial and material
support.
And since big ideas need to be funded and given
concrete expression, BMW Group France is offering:
- a €10,000 scholarship for the artist
- an €8,000 scholarship for the curator
- a €15,000 budget for researching and producing worksproduction of
a personal exhibition included in the program for Rencontres d’Arles
and Paris Photo - mentoring from jury members
- support with communications
BMW ART MAKERS:
thinking, creating, and most importantly… making things
happen.
Research and experimentation are only the
starting points of the artistic project. Once completed, BMW Group
France will promote the project through major international arts
events including the Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo.
Responding to the call for applications.
Duos
can submit their applications between October 8 and December
15, 2021 through the dedicated platform https://bmw-art-makers.plateformecandidature.com/.
Further information is available on https://www.instagram.com/bmwgroupculture_fr/.
Nominated duos will be contacted in early January to present their
project to the jury and the winning duo will be announced mid-January 2022.
BMW Group and art.
Over the past 50 years, BMW
Group has proven its commitment to culture, running the full gamut
from Frank Stella to Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, and most recently,
the emerging artists of the BMW Residency. All these years have been
spent promoting a fresh artistic perspective and encouraging myriad
combinations of different techniques, whether in contemporary art,
music, architecture, design or photography, which BMW France has been
patron since 2003. This has led to the completion of approximately one
hundred projects throughout the world.
For further questions please contact:
Prof. Dr
Thomas Girst
BMW Group Corporate and Governmental Affairs
Head of Cultural Engagement
Telephone: +49 89 382
24753
Email: Thomas.Girst@bmwgroup.com
Maryse Bataillard
BMW Group France
Head of Corporate
Communications and Public Relations
Telephone: +33 (0)1 30 03 19
41
Email: maryse.bataillard@bmw.fr
www.press.bmwgroup.com
Email:
presse@bmw.de
Maud Prangey
Press officer
Telephone: +33 (0)6 63 40 54
62
Email: mprangey@gmail.com