Camille Blatrix premieres ‘Sirens’ for BMW Open Work. BMW Open Work and BMW 8 Series Convertible to be presented in the BMW Lounge.

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.

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