PressClub South Africa · Article.
ROLLS-ROYCE UNVEILS NEW WORK BY YANG FUDONG FOR THE ART PROGRAMME
Fri Dec 09 13:39:00 CET 2016 Press Release
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars unveils new work by Chinese artist Yang Fudong as part of its Art Programme. The artist created a new video work which was launched at the Shanghai Center of Photography (SCôP), Shanghai, located in the West Bund art area. The artwork will be on public display at SCôP 13 December 2016 – 5 January 2017 and will be exhibited at further locations throughout China in 2017.
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Rolls-Royce Motor Cars unveils new work by Chinese artist Yang Fudong
as part of its Art Programme. The artist created a new video work
which was launched at the Shanghai Center of Photography (SCôP),
Shanghai, located in the West Bund art area. The artwork will be on
public display at SCôP 13 December 2016 – 5 January 2017 and will be
exhibited at further locations throughout China in 2017.
The Rolls-Royce Art Programme celebrates a shared philosophy
between the marque and the world of Art. Patrons are afforded the
luxury of a blank canvas, on which they may express their own vision,
creating motor cars that transcend their primary role as a means of
conveyance, to become works of art themselves. The programme seeks to
go beyond merely sponsoring the medium by adding cultural capital to
the world of contemporary art.
In this new work, Yang takes inspiration from the age-old
fable of the ‘foolish man’. Told in China to almost every
school child, the story of the ‘foolish man’ presents a stirring tale
of human will from which to learn the virtue of perseverance. The
result of this reflection is a 46-minute black and-white film,
entitled Moving Mountains. In addition to the national fable,
Yang was also inspired by the masterful ink painting produced in the
early 1940s by the painter Xu Beihong. The painting itself appears
only at the very end of the film, as the night rolls back and daylight
creeps in, but Yang adopts it as the form around which to flesh out
his interpretation. This remains faithful to the spirit of endurance
captured in the original painting.
The Rolls-Royce Art Programme is committed to fostering
creativity and, in particular, enabling artists to explore new areas
of their practice. Artistically, Moving Mountains moves
Yang’s career forward in coming closer to his desire to create a film
as a sketch. Moving Mountains is the focal point of a display
which combines sketches, photographic stills from the production
process and a series of photographic collage-paintings that are, to
date, unique to this project.
Alongside the film, Yang presents a series in black-and-white,
which relate to characters in the plot. The images are, for the
artist, like edited frames within the film sequencing. The film itself
unfolds through the timeframe of a day. In the ‘morning’, a mother
nurtures her son – a metaphor for the coming generations who are to
carry through the ‘foolish man’s’ work when he has gone, and the start
of life-long journeys of generations to come. The figure of the
‘foolish man’, whose agedness embodies the ideal of continuance and
continuity, of prevailing against all odds, remains central.
Yang Fudong joins renowned artists Sudarshan Shetty and José
Parlá as a member of the Rolls-Royce Art Programme in 2016.
Rolls-Royce recently celebrated a successful launch of Sudarshan
Shetty’s commission for the Art Programme in November 2016 in Mumbai.
José Parlá’s commission for the Art Programme launched during Art
Basel in Miami Beach 2016.
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 31 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 2015 was approximately € 9.22 billion on revenues amounting to € 92.18 billion. As of 31 December 2015, the BMW Group had a workforce of 122,244 employees.
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