BMW Italia will be partner of the 16th edition of the Quadriennale
d’arte, which will be held in Rome from October 13, 2016 to January 7,
2017. This year’s program will be shown at the Palazzo delle
Esposizioni on Via Nazionale and various other locations that will
host dedicated events, one of them being the BMW Roma City Sales
Outlet at Via Barberini 94 showcasing the BMW Art Car maquette by
Sandro Chia.
Founded in 1927, the Quadriennale promotes Italian
contemporary art through a major exhibition held every four years to
showcase current Italian visual art. The curators of the 16th
Quadriennale will be Michele D’Aurizio, Luigi Fassi, Simone Frangi,
Luca Lo Pinto, Matteo Lucchetti, Marta Papini, Cristiana Perrella,
Domenico Quaranta, Denis Viva as well as Simone Ciglia, together with
Luigia Lonardelli. The team was chosen from submissions of 69 young
curators to a competition announced last September, asking for project
proposals focusing on visual arts in Italy post-2000.
BMW Italia
will support the exhibition on Via Nazionale by displaying the BMW Art
Car created by Sandro Chia from 1992 – the only Italian artist
represented in the BMW Art Car series so far. The very same year he
designed his BMW Art Car, Chia had a major exhibition as part of the
12th Quadriennale, titled “Italia 1950-1990. Profili Dialettica
Situazioni” at Palazzo delle Esposizioni from July 9 to 21
September, 1992.
“By installing the BMW Art Car by Sandro Chia as the 100th work in
the exhibition”, says Sergio Solero, President and CEO of BMW Italia,
“we pay tribute to the centenary of BMW Group. Thus, we managed to
create a direct link to the 16th Quadriennale. A video installation
will guide visitors to discover the design and creative process of the
13th Art Car, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2017 – just
when the Quadrenniale will also close its doors on January 7”.
The 13th BMW Art Car by Sandro Chia
When Sandro Chia sees any surface, it’s as if it calls to him, “paint
me, paint me!” And that is what happened when he first saw the BMW 3
Series coupé, a prototype built to compete in the Italian Gran Turismo Championship.
So he started to paint, painted faces and a sea of intensive colours
until the car’s whole bodywork had been completely covered. “The
automobile is a much coveted object within our society”, said Sandro
Chia commenting on his work. “It is the centre of attraction. People
look at it. This car reflects those looks.” The design of the Art Car
was not his first artistic involvement with an automobile. Even as a
child he painted graffiti on cars.
The renaissance city of Florence, where Sandro Chia was born in 1946,
is the world of his childhood and his youth, a world in which he
learned to take a playful and relaxed approach towards the fine arts.
As early as in the seventies he displayed his work at important
individual exhibitions and was soon recognized as one of the most
significant artists of the Italian Transavanguardia. He sees himself
as a neo-expressionist, his figurative painting revealing signs of
having been influenced by Carrà, de Chirico, Picasso as well as
Montegna and Giorgione.
The BMW Art Car collection
Since 1975 artists from the world over have been creating Art Cars on
the basis of contemporary BMW automobiles. The collection was
inaugurated when French race car driver and art aficionado Hervé
Poulain in collaboration with the then BMW Motorsport Director Jochen
Neerpasch asked his artist friend Alexander Calder to design a car.
The result was a BMW 3.0 CSL, which in 1975 was raced at the 24 Hours
of Le Mans and became an instant favorite with the spectators: the BMW
Art Car Collection was born. In 2010, the most recent addition to the
series, a car designed by Jeff Koons, was introduced at the Centre
Pompidou in Paris. BMW Art Cars are not only on display in their home
town at BMW’s museum in Munich, they also travel internationally to
exhibitions and museums in Asia, Europe and North America. 2014 saw
the first comprehensive publication on the collection. On the occasion
of the 40th anniversary of the series in 2015, a jury of distinguished
museum directors and curators commissioned two internationally
renowned artists to design two vehicles. The Chinese artist Cao Fei
(b.1978) and American John Baldessari (b.1931) will be respectively
the youngest and the eldest artists to be represented in the
collection. For further information, please refer to: https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global
The BMW Group and culture: a longstanding commitment in Italy and the world
For almost 50 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in
over 100 cultural cooperations worldwide. The company places the main
focus of its long-term commitment on contemporary and modern art,
classical music and jazz as well as architecture and design. In 1972,
three large-scale paintings were created by the artist Gerhard Richter
specifically for the foyer of the BMW Group’s Munich headquarters.
Since then, artists such as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Daniel Barenboim,
Jonas Kaufmann and architect Zaha Hadid have co-operated with BMW.
Currently, female artist Cao Fei from China and American John
Baldessari are creating the next two vehicles for the BMW Art Car
Collection. Besides co-initiatives, such as BMW Tate Live, the BMW Art
Journey and the “Opera for All” concerts in Berlin, Munich and London,
the company also partners with leading museums and art fairs as well
as orchestras and opera houses around the world. The BMW Group takes
absolute creative freedom in all its cultural activities – as this
initiative is as essential for producing groundbreaking artistic work
as it is for major innovations in a successful business.
In Italy, the BMW Group is likewise engaged in the cultural field
through initiatives and high profile projects ranging from the Teatro
alla Scala (of which BMW Italy is a founding supporting partner and
sponsor of the Opera for Kids project) to the Teatro dell’Opera di
Roma (supported by the subsidiary of BMW Roma), from the MINI brand
projects with the Milan Triennale and the MAXXI in Rome to corporate
social responsibility projects in order to support an intercultural
dialogue – such as the Fourth Intercultural Bicocca Day on May 26. For
updates on these projects, please go to: www.specialmente.bmw.it.
Further information: www.bmwgroup.com/culture and www.bmwgroup.com/culture/overview
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMW-Group-Culture-925330854231870/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmwgroupculture/
@BMWGroupCulture
#BMWGroupCulture
For further information:
Roberto Olivi
Director of Institutional Relations and Communication
Telephone: 02/51610.294
E-mail: roberto.olivi@bmw.it
Patrizia Venturini
Public Relations
Telephone: 02/51610.164
E-mail: patrizia.venturini@bmw.it
The BMW Group
With its three brands – BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce
– the BMW Group is the world’s leading manufacturer of premium cars
and motorcycles and also provides financial services and premium
mobility. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 31 production
and assembly plants in 14 countries and has a global sales network in
more than 140 countries.
In 2015, the BMW Group sold around
2,247,000 cars and 137,000 motorcycles worldwide. Pre-tax profits for
the year 2015 was 9.22 billion euro with revenues of approximately
92.18 billion euro. As of December 31 2015, the BMW Group had 122,244
employees.
The success of the BMW Group has always been based on
long-term vision and responsible action. As such, as part of its
strategy, the company has established ecological and social
sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product
responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources.
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