MINI LAUNCHES GIANT DESIGN BURSARY FOR BODY & SOUL FESTIVAL 2019.

MINI Ireland and Body & Soul Music and Arts Festival are on the search for a creative collaborator to design a stage installation space exclusively for MINI at this year’s festival. With a giant MINI bursary prize of €10,000, the open competition pays tribute to the original MINI, launched 60 years ago in 1959 and which was invented as an answer to a pressing social issue – a global acute fuel shortage. Its inventor Sir Alec Issigonis set up a secret design team office to develop a small car that would break all the rules of car engineering at the time.

With the theme; ‘Creative Use of Space’, the installation will pay homage to the iconic car that is renowned for its original and unconventional approach to design. MINI has devised the bursary to also showcase its creative solutions approach for Future Urban Living Spaces across its MINI Living, URBAN X and A/D/O brands. It’s an amazing opportunity to work with an incredible team of creatives that includes Mary Pike, Body & Soul Head of Design and Hollywood Prop Maker (Avatar, Mad Max etc.), Nathalie Weadick, Director of the Irish Architecture Foundation and Avril Stanley, Body & Soul Founder and Festival Visionary.

As well as its ground-breaking music, beautiful art installations, gastronomic delights and indulgent wellbeing areas Body & Soul, which takes place on 21^st to 23^rd June 2019 at Ballinlough Castle, Co. Westmeath and celebrates 10 years this year, is renowned for its nurturing ethos towards designers and creatives that represent a fresh new generation of break-through and emerging Irish talent and has worked with Maser, Aoife Banville and acclaimed architect Rae Moore.

Through the festival weekend, the MINI Stage will be home to ‘MINI Talks Sessions’ featuring special guests from the design and automotive worlds. A key criteria for the winning design is that it will be used as a focal point for photos, be architecturally interesting and visually striking, and serve as a communal area to meet your MINI tribe! The competition is open to anyone who thinks they have what it takes to design an architecturally inspiring space.

Austin Behan, General Manager for MINI Ireland said: “The space should blend in harmoniously with the Body & Soul Festival theme, Rituals, and take design cues from MINI’s brand history and heritage. By collaborating with Body & Soul Festival we have an opportunity to showcase in Ireland how MINI is more than just a car brand but a leader in creating solutions for future urban living spaces, through MINI Living, URBAN X and A/D/O”.

For more information on the brief and to enter, applicants need to submit designs via the following link: http://bodyandsoul.ie/page/mini by Wednesday 14^th April at 23:59.*The €10,000 bursary must cover costs of materials, construction, design etc.

For further information check out www.instagram.com/MINI.ie/  www.MINI.ie , www.facebook.com/MINI.Ireland/ or www.youtube.com/MINI.

BRAND INSPIRATION CAN BE TAKEN FROM MINI’S THREE CREATIVE LIFESTYLE SOLUTIONS BRANDS.  

A/D/O

This year marks MINI’s 60^th birthday and celebration of an extraordinary story of a design icon. Built in 1959, it was invented as an answer to a pressing social issue – a global acute fuel shortage, and its inventor Sir Alec Issigonis set up a secret design office to develop a small car that would break all the rules of car engineering at the time. The name of this team: Amalgamated Drawing Office, A/D/O.  MINI aims at offering products and services that are truly relevant to people, every day. The creative space was founded with this purpose: to serve the creative community, locally and globally. A/D/O strives to spark new creative work and build a meeting place for pioneers from diverse backgrounds. Meaningful design cannot happen in isolation – it needs exchange and so MINI is collaborating beyond the automotive industry to fuel design thinking at large as well as get inspired for our own innovation, beyond automotive.

URBAN-X: A/D/O is home to URBAN-X, a start-up accelerator by MINI and Urban Us with the mission of “Reimagining City Life." The venture combines the core competencies of MINI with best-in-class acceleration process, investor network and experience bringing new innovative technologies to market. Every six months MINI select up to 10 urbantech start-ups and invest $150,000 per company.

MINI LIVING: MINI LIVING is a translation of the brand’s key principle, creative use of space, and brings it into real solutions for how we live, work and interact in our cities. Working with a small footprint in mind, we seek to answer these challenges in a way that combines design knowledge with the spirit of experience - and fun. MINI LIVING believes that creative use of space is key for new approaches to the cities we love. The brand’s design knowledge is applied to discover new concepts for urban living, and establish smart ways to share resources.

-ENDS-

MINI Press Office Contact:

Laura Condron | Corporate Communications & Events Manager |01 8628 214 | laura.condron@bmw.ie

Media website: www.press.bmwgroup.ie