PressClub Global · Article.
The House of BMW in Milan: BMW Group Design and Mike Meiré present “Tales from a Neo Collective Future” at the Salone del Mobile.
09.06.2022 Press Release
On 7 – 12 June the House of BMW in Milan will turn into a centre for dialogue between people, art and technology. Designer and artist Mike Meiré is curating a programme of installations, performances, workshops and discussion formats for the Salone del Mobile design fair. The focus lies on connectedness, digitality and circularity.
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Michaela Martinus
BMW Group
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Michaela Martinus
BMW Group
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Milan. How can we design technologies that respond to human needs, given the challenges of the modern world? The House of BMW has come up with some answers. Located in the heart of Milan’s fashion district, the company’s dialogue hub will transform into an experimental artistic space for the Salone del Mobile on 7 – 12 June and shine a spotlight on connectedness, digitalisation and circularity.
“House of BMW: In residence Mike Meiré – Tales from a Neo Collective Future” is the name of the six-day programme made up of installations, performances, workshops and discussion formats – with art director, designer, curator and artist Mike Meiré taking the artistic lead.
“The House of BMW is an ideal location for this interdisciplinary project,” explains Massimiliano Di Silvestre, President and CEO of BMW Italy. “Here, technology, design, beauty and innovation share the stage with sustainability and circularity. And at the centre of it all is something we have come to appreciate all over again in recent years: the importance of interpersonal relationships.”
“Tales from a Neo Collective Future” sees the artists Botter, Claudia Rafael and Anna Deller-Yee reflecting the spirit of the times. They tackle opportunities and challenges of technological developments by interpreting strategies of digitalisation and circularity. During the Salone del Mobile, the House of BMW will, to this end, transform into an open space of possibilities where artists and visitors venture together into the sphere between perception and poetry, factual and fantastic. “Art can inspire us as designers to think really radically about innovation. Design is, in a sense, the combination of art and technology,” says Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design. “The Salone del Mobile provides an exciting platform where we can rediscover this symbiosis again and again.”
The Neue Klasse is a standard-bearer for a new attitude.
The BMW Group is part of this experience space, a company
navigating transition. The underlying spirit of this process can be
seen very prominently in the BMW i Vision Circular study car. The
fully electric four-seater embodies the BMW Group’s intention to
become the most sustainable manufacturer in the world of individual
premium mobility. It marks the starting point for a whole new
attitude. Circular economy was a factor in its design from day one of
development. The BMW i Vision Circular is not a finished product, it’s
a vision. And that connects it with the artworks in “Tales from a Neo
Collective Future”: Both are blueprints of what could be.
A creative exchange with artists and their work
.
BMW Group Design, the House of BMW, Mike
Meiré and the artists he’s selected have come together behind this
philosophy. “As a collective of artists and designers we want to use
the possibilities we have today and the challenges facing us as we
look ahead to create a place which inspires us, moves us and
stimulates us to dream,” explains Mike Meiré. The collective includes
Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, founders and creative directors of
menswear label BOTTER. Inspired by their Caribbean roots, BOTTER’s
fashion creations reflect social engagement and environmental
awareness, combined with art and innovation. Berlin-based Claudia
Rafael, meanwhile, brings together the human interface and the
possibilities of technology in her digital art – and uses filters to
question existing ideals of beauty. Anna Deller-Yee lives and works in
both Germany and Italy. She describes herself as “the designer that
paints too much”. She combines visual and narrative elements of
fashion and painting. In her work, traditional artisan crafts become a
toolset to express her perception of our society.
BOTTER view circularity as the central element of their works.
In Milan they will be working with a recycled item that
can be found all around the world: the archetypical “Monobloc” chair.
Designed originally as disposable, the creatives will elevate this
mass product to the status of unique tailor-made pieces, objects that
completely change how they are perceived through a new shell. By
wrapping each chair as a textile sculpture – a process of radical
upcycling – BOTTER not only experiment with the conventional order of
high and low culture, they challenge production methods.
BOTTER’s second work focuses on the evolution of movement. It invites us to envision an alternative of how we understand movement today. The sculpture appears as a kind of capsule – made from recycled plastic. A large transparent mould, inspired by a toy box, encloses a void in the life-size figure of a human being. Seemingly emerging from another dimension, the work suggests an alternative to the familiar. In this sense BOTTER create a mould of what might come, a blank space we can fill with our imagination.
Claudia Rafael questions the societal potential of
technological innovation.
For “Tales from a Neo
Collective Future” Claudia Rafael explores the deeply human capacities
of technological innovation. For the duration of the exhibition, the
artist collects images of visitors on site. By altering these images
through her facial filtering technique and by making them part of a
constantly growing dataset, the artist creates a portrait of all the
participants with Artificial Intelligence. Over time, an image is
created that symbolises all the visitors to Neo Collective. They can
interactively experience the face-filter capturing process by adding
their image to a “collective portrait” that will emerge at the end of
the exhibition. During the programme, visitors can see the image
evolve in real time. This collective image illustrates the
contradictions of digitalisation: its anonymity and intimacy.
Anna Deller-Yee empowers collective movements using human
touch.
Anna Deller-Yee employs the metaphor of the SMELL
OF RAIN for “Tales from a Neo Collective Future”. In a figurative
work, the artist brings together painting and embroidery. An ancient
knowledge of artisan crafts becomes the tool set to express her
perception of our society. A large-scale tapestry made up of diverse
materials expresses how human touch can empower collective movements,
especially in digital times.
A richly varied programme transforms the House of BMW into an
Open House.
A variety of events, performances, and
design talks between Mike Meiré and Head of BMW Design Domagoj Dukec,
and with artists from the collective, will also take place across the
six days of the fair. Added to which, in an example of sustainable
production at work, a miniature version of the BMW i Vision Circular –
the circular vision of BMW Group Design – will be created live and
without any waste over the course of the week using a 3D printer.
Michelle Elie’s “Cooking Experience” places a collective ritual
at centre stage: the shared experience of cooking and eating. And Mike
Meiré’s installation “Lab to Market” also tells its story here – of
the lively chaos of a market, with all its flavours and aromas,
meeting the artificial technological order of a laboratory.
The House of BMW will be showing the artists’ work at Via Verri 10 in Milan on 7 – 12 June: In residence Mike Meiré – Tales from a Neo Collective Future.
You can find the latest information on the programme here.
In the event of enquiries please contact:
Corporate Communications
Michaela Martinus, Spokesperson BMW Group Design
E-mail: michaela.martinus@bmw.de, telephone: +49-89-382-21163
Almut Stollberg, Head of Communication Innovation, Design, Technology, Digital Car
E-mail: Almut.Stollberg@bmwgroup.com, telephone: +49-89-382-96543
Internet: www.press.bmwgroup.com
E-mail: presse@bmwgroup.com
The BMW Group
With its four brands BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad, the BMW Group is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and also provides premium financial and mobility services. The BMW Group production network comprises 31 production and assembly facilities in 15 countries; the company has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.
In 2021, the BMW Group sold over 2.5 million passenger vehicles and more than 194,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax in the financial year 2021 was € 16.1 billion on revenues amounting to € 111.2 billion. As of 31 December 2021, the BMW Group had a workforce of 118,909 employees.
The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company set the course for the future at an early stage and consistently makes sustainability and efficient resource management central to its strategic direction, from the supply chain through production to the end of the use phase of all products.
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Article Offline Attachments.
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220525_Salone_del_Mobile_EN PDF, EN, 113.83 KB
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Vita Mike Meiré PDF, EN, 44 KB
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Vita BOTTER PDF, EN, 44.82 KB
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Vita Claudia Rafael PDF, EN, 30.01 KB
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Vita Anna Deller-Yee PDF, EN, 33.06 KB
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Vita Michelle Elie PDF, EN, 30.56 KB