It is easy to be cynical about corporate-sponsored art. Necessary even. But a lot of art wouldn’t get made without it. Some of it good. Elsewhere on this site you can read about Isaac Julien’s marvelous Stones Against Diamonds, a project that wouldn’t have got off the ground without support from the Rolls-Royce Art Programme.
The German Car giant BMW, which owns Rolls-Royce, has been running its own cultural programme for 40 years. It is very serious about it and backs it with serious money. You can try and unpack the motives but better to look at the output.
Last year for instance it launched the BMW Art Journey, a collaboration with Art Basels Miami Beach and Hong Kong. Put simply, the project provides funding for two emerging artists, one picked from each fair, to go on a year-long voyage of discovery; creatively and literally.
The inaugural BMW Art Journey-maker was Hong Kong artist and composer Samson Young who returned from on a campanological tour of London, Los Angeles, Nuremberg, Mombasa, Mandalay, St.Petersburg and elsewhere with For Whom the Bell Tolls: A Journey into the Sonic History of Conflict.
In each location, Young recorded the sound of bells that had been witness and peeled (and unpeeled) during times of conflict (one of the key ideas behind Young’s piece is that bells were often melted down to make cannons during wartime and then recast from retired artillery in occasional moments of peace). Using these ‘sound-sketches’ he is composing a new piece for bells and orchestra.
The shortlist of artists nominated to make the next BMW-sponsored creative trip was announced during this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach. It includes the German duo Henning Fehr and Phillip Rühr, the LA-based artist Dan Bayles, and the Mexican artist Fritzia Irizar. Each has to submit an outline of their odyssey and what they hope to come back with by January next year. And they will find out whether they need to start packing when the winner is announced in February.
Young, pictured here at Church Saint-Martin-sous-Vigouroux, Department Cantal, returned from on a campanological tour of London, Los Angeles, Nuremberg, Mombasa, Mandalay, St.Petersburg and elsewhere with For Whom the Bell Tolls: A Journey into the Sonic History of Conflict
In each location, Young recorded the sound of bells that had been witness to times of conflict, using these ‘sound-sketches’ he is composing a new piece for bells and orchestra
The shortlist of artists nominated to make the next BMW-sponsored creative trip was announced during this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach...
...It includes the German duo Henning Fehr and Phillip Rühr, the LA-based artist Dan Bayles, and the Mexican artist Fritzia Irizar. Each has to submit an outline of their odyssey and what they hope to come back with by January next year. The winner being announced in February before beginning their journey
INFORMATION
For more information visit the BMW Art Journey website
Photography courtesy of the artist and BMW
-
Jack White's Third Man Records opens a Paris pop-upJack White's immaculately-branded record store will set up shop in the 9th arrondissement this weekend
-
Designer Marta de la Rica’s elegant Madrid studio is full of perfectly-pitched contradictionsThe studio, or ‘the laboratory’ as de la Rica and her team call it, plays with colour, texture and scale in eminently rewarding ways
-
‘Nothing just because it’s beautiful’: Performance artist Marina Abramović on turning her hand to furniture designMarina Abramović has no qualms about describing her segue into design as a ‘domestication’. But, argues the ‘grandmother of performance art’ as she unveils a collection of chairs, something doesn’t have to be provocative to be meaningful
-
Switzerland’s best art exhibitions to see in 2025Art fans, here’s your bucket list of the standout exhibitions to see in Switzerland in 2025, exploring compelling themes and diverse media
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA snowy Swiss Alpine sleepover, a design book fest in Milan, and a night with Steve Coogan in London – our editors' out-of-hours adventures this week
-
What to look out for at Art Basel Miami Beach 2024Art Basel Miami Beach returns for its inaugural edition under new director Bridget Finn, running 6-8 December, with 286 international exhibitors and a packed week of parties, pop-up, and special projects
-
Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales film series comes to life for Art Basel ParisIn ‘Tales & Tellers’, interdisciplinary artist Goshka Macuga brings Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales film series for Art Basel Paris to life for the public programme
-
Art Basel returns to Paris: here is everything to see and doArt Basel Paris 2024 (18 - 20 October 2024) returns, opening at the newly renovated Grand Palais
-
‘Happy birthday Louise Parker II’: enter the world of Roe EthridgeRoe Ethridge speaks of his concurrent Gagosian exhibitions, in Gstaad and London, touching on his fugue approach to photography, fridge doors, and his longstanding collaborator Louise Parker
-
‘Who has not dreamed of seeing what the eye cannot grasp?’: Rencontres d’Arles comes to the south of FranceLes Rencontres d’Arles 2024 presents over 40 exhibitions and nearly 200 artists, and includes the latest iteration of the BMW Art Makers programme
-
Es Devlin and BMW reveal hydrogen-fuelled collaboration at Art Basel 2024Es Devlin and BMW celebrate the potential of hydrogen power in installations unveiled at Art Basel 2024, including a take on the BMW iX5 Hydrogen
