The BMW Group celebrates 40 years of international cultural involvement at the Venice Biennale.

Munich. This year sees the BMW Group celebrating 40 years of international cultural engagement, a milestone that is being marked at the 2011 Venice Biennale, among other occasions. The Group will be represented in Venice by events in connection with the BMW Guggenheim Lab, the Nationalgalerie Prize and the Hungarian Pavilion.

The BMW Guggenheim Lab.

On June 2, the BMW Group and the Guggenheim Foundation will be hosting an exclusive luncheon on the roof of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice in honour of their latest and biggest international cultural venture – the BMW Guggenheim Lab. Noteworthy guests from the world of the arts, business and politics have accepted the invitation from Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and Frank-Peter Arndt, member of the Board of Management of the BMW Group. The first BMW Guggenheim Lab will open in New York on August 3, 2011 before travelling to Berlin and Asia within the next two years. In total, this multidisciplinary platform will spend six years touring the world, its aim being to generate new perspectives on life in our modern-day metropolises.

Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst 2011.

A further event will be the announcement of the second jury for the Nationalgalerie Prize for young artists, which will once again be awarded in 2011. To mark the occasion, the Association of Friends of the Nationalgalerie and the BMW Group will host an exclusive cocktail reception in St. Mark’s Square. During the award ceremony on September 28, 2011, the jury will select the winner from among the four nominated artists – Cyprien Gaillard, Klara Lidén, Kitty Kraus and Andro Wekua. All four artists will be showcasing their works in a joint exhibition held from September 8, 2011 to January 8, 2012 at the Hamburger Bahnhof contemporary art museum in Berlin.

The Hungarian Pavilion.

The BMW Group has supported the artist Hajnal Németh in bringing to fruition her contribution to the Hungarian Pavilion at this year’s art biennale. Ms Németh was given permission to carry out filming for her installation and to record the soundscape for her work at BMW’s Leipzig plant, whose main building was designed by Zaha Hadid. Németh’s installation, which celebrates a crashed BMW as a tragic hero, will be on show in the Hungarian national pavilion for the duration of the Biennale.

About BMW’s Cultural Commitment

In 2011 the BMW Group is celebrating 40 years of international cultural commitment. For 40 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in more than 100 cultural cooperations worldwide. The company places the main focus of its long-term commitment on modern and contemporary art, jazz and classical music as well as architecture and design. The BMW Group has also been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last six years. 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, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Eliasson, Thomas Demand and Jeff Koons have cooperated with BMW. The company has also commissioned famous architects such as Karl Schwanzer, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelb(l)au to design important corporate buildings and plants. The BMW Group guarantees absolute creative freedom in all the cultural activities it is involved in – as this is just as essential for groundbreaking artistic work as it is for major innovations in a successful business.

The BMW Group

The BMW Group is one of the most successful manufacturers of automobiles and motorcycles in the world with its BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 24 production facilities in 13 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries. 

During the financial year 2010, the BMW Group sold 1.46 million cars and more than 110,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for 2010 was euro 4.8 billion on revenues amounting to euro 60.5 billion. At 31 December 2010, the BMW Group had a workforce of approximately 95,500 employees.

The success of the BMW Group has always been built on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy. As a result of its efforts, the BMW Group has been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last six years.

Information regarding the BMW Group’s cultural involvement: www.bmwgroup.com/culture