BMW Tate Live Performance Rooms in autumn: Selma and Sofiane Ouissi and Alexandra Bachzetsis. Live and online on September 18 and October 23, 2014.

London. Choreographers Selma and Sofiane Ouissi and artist Alexandra Bachzetsis present two new online performance commissions for the BMW Tate Live Performance Room on 18 September and 23 October 2014. Selma and Sofiane Ouissi will respond to each other’s movements. They will be located in separate countries and united by Skype in one performance. Alexandra Bachzetsis will explore how physical gestures can represent and create identity. BMW Tate Live Performance Room is a pioneering programme of live performances commissioned exclusively for online viewing and simultaneously seen by international audiences across world time zones via Tate’s Youtube channel www.youtube.com/user/tate/tatelive. BMW Tate Live is a longterm partnership between BMW and Tate, which focuses on performance, interdisciplinary art and curating digital space. 

Brother and sister Selma and Sofiane Ouissi, both major figures of contemporary dance in the Arab world, used Skype in their work “Here(s) 2011–2012” in order to dance together while located in different cities. Through their live link-up the two artists responded to each others onscreen movements. For BMW Tate Live Performance Room they will draw on their history of online collaboration. Selma will be in Paris and Sofiane in London and they will use Skype to interact. For this performance they are joined by digital artist Yacine Sebti who will create additional visual imagery. The performance is broadcast live on Tate’s Youtube channel on 18 September 2014, 20.00 GMT.

The Ouissis have danced together throughout their careers. Collaborating with directors and renowned choreographers including Fadhel Jaziri, the company Michèle Anne de Mey, the duo have performed worldwide in venues such as Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels or Tanzquartier in Vienna. 

Award-winning artist and choreographer Alexandra Bachzetsis’s work “From A to B via C” examines the impact of borrowed and learned physical habits. The performance moves through imaginary places and events from a ballet classroom to an online dance tutorial, exploring how our bodies incorporate skills, translate movements and inform our identities. The work, involving three dancers, was originally created for a theatre and then transformed for a live performance in an exhibition space. The performance on 23 October 2014, 20.00 GMT, sees the work transformed again for the online audience.

Bachzetsis lives and works between Basel and Zurich. She began her career as a dancer and has been working independently, producing and presenting her own work in theatres and contemporary art venues since 2003. Her newest performance “The Stages of Staging” was presented at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam in 2013. 

The innovative format of Performance Room offers international audiences an opportunity to experience entirely new works live and to join a discussion about the work online. The global online audience are encouraged to chat with other viewers via social media channels during the performance and to put questions to the artist or curator for the live Q&A by following @TateLive; using #BMWTateLive; Tate Facebook; or Tate Google+. Each online performance is archived and available to view online after the live event. 

BMW Tate Live is curated by Catherine Wood, Curator, Contemporary Art and Performance and Capucine Perrot, Assistant Curator at Tate Modern. 

BMW Tate Live 

BMW Tate Live is a long-term partnership between the BMW Group and Tate that features innovative live performances and events including live web broadcast, in-gallery performance, seminars and talks. BMW Tate Live aims to reach an international audience through new forms of art, addressing audiences changing needs, tastes and interests in art. The initiative creates a new space for collaboration and a programme that encompasses performance, film, sound, installation and learning – areas where artists can take greater risks and experiment freely. The programme investigates transformation in all its guises and aims to provoke debate on how art can affect intellectual, social and physical change. More information at tate.org.uk/bmwtatelive 

BMW’s Cultural Commitment

For over 40 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in more than 100 cultural partnerships worldwide. The focus of this long-term commitment to culture is modern and contemporary art, jazz and classical music as well as architecture and design. BMW has worked with artists such as Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Eliasson, Jeff Koons, Zubin Metha, Daniel Barenboim and Anna Netrebko and commissioned architects such as Karl Schwanzer, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelbau. In London, BMW in partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra, hosts the BMW LSO Open Air Classics, a yearly live concert free of charge in Trafalgar Square, and supports Frieze Art Fair. 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: bmwgroup.com/culture and 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 29 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries. 

In 2013, the BMW Group sold approximately 1.963 million cars and 115,215 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the financial year 2013 was € 7.91 billion on revenues amounting to approximately € 76.06 billion. As of 31 December 2013, the BMW Group had a workforce of 110,351 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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For questions please contact:

Dr. Thomas Girst

BMW Group Corporate and Intergovernmental Affairs

Head of Cultural Engagement

Telephone: +49 89-382-24753, Fax: +49 89-382-10881

Jeanette Ward

Senior Press Officer, Tate
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7887 4942, E-mail: pressoffice@tate.org.uk

Media Website: www.press.bmwgroup.com

E-mail: presse@bmw.de