BMW is partner of Art Basel in Hong Kong. Multimedia walk with BMW Art Journey winner Samson Young and presentation of Frank Stella’s BMW Art Car.

Hong Kong. Since its launch in Hong Kong in 2013, the Art Basel show has established itself as the centre of Asia’s international art scene. This year, 239 leading galleries will once more display works by over 4,000 artists at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in the heart of the city from March 24 to 26 . BMW has supported Art Basel in Hong Kong from the beginning as an official partner and is again providing the VIP shuttle service. 

The BMW Art Car created by US artist Frank Stella will also be presented at the exhibition centre in the BMW Lounge. As second “rolling sculpture” in the collection, Stella’s BMW Art Car celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, being designed in 1976 – just a year after Alexander Calder had created the series’ founding model. Stella drew inspiration from the technology and engineering behind the car and cloaked the body in a design recalling oversized graph paper. “My design is like a blueprint transferred onto the bodywork,” the artist explained. The 17 cars in the legendary collection continue to fascinate both art and design enthusiasts as well as car and technology fans the world over. 

Together with Art Basel, BMW launched a new initiative to support young emerging artists: the BMW Art Journey. The winner of the first journey, Hong Kong based artist Samson Young, will present an interactive multimedia walk entitled “So You Are Old by the Time You Reach the Island” at the Art Basel show. As part of this tour – adding a new chapter to his BMW Art Journey project “For Whom the Bell Tolls: A Journey Into the Sonic History of Conflict” – the artist will lead participants outside the exhibition centre and into the Wan Chai and Admiralty districts of Hong Kong to explore well known and more undiscovered parts of the city. Equipped with a portable media player, each member of the group will be able to experience sound recordings from Young’s travels across eleven countries on five contents, as well as newly produced films and live performances. 

This year once again, international experts will gather at the Art Basel show to select a shortlist of three artists from the Discoveries sector for the BMW Art Journey. Members of the jury are Richard Armstrong, Director Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Claire Hsu, Director Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; Matthias Mühling, Director Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Bose Krishnamachari, President Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India; and Pauline J. Yao, Curator, Visual Art M+, Hong Kong. The three artists who will then be invited to submit their proposals for a journey will be presented to the media in the BMW Lounge at 4:00 PM on March 23, 2016. That evening, BMW will host an exclusive VIP cocktail reception to celebrate the announcement of the BMW Art Journey shortlist. 

Next to Art Basel in Hong Kong, BMW also supports the international Art Basel shows in Basel and Miami Beach as a long-term partner. 

For further questions please contact:

Dr. Thomas Girst

BMW Group Corporate and Governmental Affairs

Head of Cultural Engagement

Telephone: +49-89-382-24753

For further information please contact BMW Group Cultural Engagement:

Telephone: +49 151 601 51468

www.press.bmwgroup.com

E-Mail: presse@bmw.de

BMW’s Cultural Commitment

For more than 40 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 modern and contemporary art, jazz and classical music 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, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Eliasson, Jeff Koons, Zubin Metha, Daniel Barenboim and Anna Netrebko have co-operated 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. In 2011, the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a global initiative of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Guggenheim Museum and the BMW Group celebrated its world premiere in New York. The BMW Group takes absolute creative freedom in all the cultural activities it is involved in for granted – as this is just as essential for groundbreaking artistic work as it is for major innovations in a successful business.  

Further information: www.bmwgroup.com/culture and www.bmwgroup.com/culture/overview 

The BMW Group

With its three brands BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce, the BMW Group is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and also provides premium financial and mobility services. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 30 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries. 

In 2015, the BMW Group sold approximately 2.247 million cars and nearly 137,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the financial year 2014 was approximately € 8.71 billion on revenues amounting to € 80.40 billion. As of 31 December 2014, the BMW Group had a workforce of 116,324 employees. 

The success of the BMW Group has always been based 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. 

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About Art Basel

Art Basel stages the world's premier art shows for Modern and contemporary works, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. In addition to ambitious stands featuring leading galleries from around the globe, each show's exhibition sectors spotlight the latest developments in the visual arts, offering visitors new ideas and new inspiration. For further information please visit artbasel.com