Max Hooper Schneider selected for next BMW Art Journey. Los Angeles-based artist to explore reef ecologies in the Indo-West Pacific, in Russia and East Africa.

Munich/Basel. Art Basel and BMW are delighted to
present Los Angeles-based artist Max Hooper Schneider
(represented by Jenny’s Los Angeles and High Art, Paris) as
the next BMW Art Journey winner. The international jury selected him
unanimously from a shortlist of three artists whose works were
exhibited in the Positions sector at last year’s Art Basel show in
Miami Beach.



“Planetary Vitrine: The Reef as Event”
Max
Hooper Schneider’s Art Journey is a maritime exploration of coral
reefs around the globe. Most of the sites are situated in the
Indo-West Pacific, where the majority of the planet’s corals are
found; others are in Russia and East Africa. The journey, as currently
envisaged, includes shorter visits to two pilgrimage sites seminal in
the development of the coral imaginary in science and art: Cocos
Keeling Islands, where Charles Darwin conducted fieldwork for his 1842
treatise, “The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs”; and The
Bahamas, to which André Breton traveled on an imaginary voyage via
readymade photographic representations of Bahamian coral in order to
document nature’s surreality.

Max Hooper Schneider’s journey will investigate reef systems from the
Bikini Atoll to the Fukushima disaster “reef” in Japan, from Lake
Baikal in Russia to the coast of Madagascar, and produce a diverse
narrative around them. Importantly, each reef system has been
compromised by its contact with humans, and each one reveals a
specific aspect of how this interaction has occurred, as well as how
human and non-human agents have acted over time to remediate the
damage. Together, the reefs tell a story of death and resilience,
corruption and rebirth.

The artist’s journey will include dimensions of research and
documentation as well as sculptural events. Building on his
longstanding practice of creating glass and acrylic vitrines that both
contain and reflect upon complex natural and man-made systems, Max
Hooper Schneider plans to bury empty vitrines at sea near one or more
of the visited sites. The transformation of the vitrines into new, as
he terms them, ‘Trans-Habitats’, co-created by artist, reef, and other
natural and human participants in the process, will be monitored by
the artist periodically. Hooper Schneider’s long-term expectation is
to exhume and exhibit these Trans-Habitats well after the formal
conclusion of this Art Journey.

Art Basel and BMW will collaborate with the artist to document the
journey and share it with a broader public through print publications,
online and social media.

The international experts awarding Hooper Schneider’s proposal were
Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director New Museum,
New York; Gabriele Horn, Director Berlin Biennale,
Berlin; Victoria Noorthoorn, Director Museo de Arte
Moderno, Buenos Aires; Bisi Silva, Director Centre
for Contemporary Art, Lagos; and Philip Tinari,
Director Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing.

The five-member jury, in its joint statement, lauded the exceptional
depth and detail of Max Hooper Schneider’s proposal and its
comprehensive approach to the BMW Art Journey:
“The proposal
develops important themes in Hooper Schneider’s practice, which
already impressed us deeply at Art Basel in Miami Beach. The idea of
visiting coral reefs grows out of Hooper Schneider’s interests in the
relationship between philosophy and nature, the personal and the
political, destruction and construction and what he calls non-human
and human agents. We were excited by how the project gives expression
to concerns about ecological destruction in today’s world. This
ambitious project amounts to a series of artistic tests, coupled with
richly sourced historical research, which promises to open new
dimensions in the artist’s work and lead to unpredictable results. We
are curious to see the filmic material, the photographs, the texts,
and subsequently, the Trans-Habitats that will emerge from Max Hooper
Schneider’s extraordinary Art Journey.”

In addition to Max Hooper Schneider, the shortlisted artists from the
Positions sector for emerging artists at Art Basel in Miami Beach
included: Maggie Lee with Real Fine Arts, New York, and Beto Shwafaty
represented by Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Milan, Lucca.

The BMW Art Journey is a collaboration between Art Basel and BMW,
created to recognize and support emerging artists worldwide. This
unique award is open to artists who are exhibiting in the Discoveries
and Positions sectors in the Hong Kong and Miami Beach shows of Art
Basel, respectively. Two judging panels comprised of internationally
renowned experts meet first to select a shortlist of three artists
from the sector, who are then invited to submit proposals for a
journey aimed to further develop their ideas and artistic work. The
jury reconvenes to choose a winner from the three proposals.

The next round of selections for the BMW Art Journey will take place
during Art Basel in Hong Kong, where on March 22 the three shortlisted
artists from the Discoveries sector will be announced at the BMW
Lounge. The next winner of the BMW Art Journey will be presented in
early summer 2017.

BMW is a global partner of Art Basel and has supported Art Basel’s
three shows in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong for many years.

For further information about the artist and the project, please visit:

www.bmw-art-journey.com

For further questions please contact:
Dr Thomas
Girst
BMW Group Corporate and Intergovernmental Affairs
Head
of Cultural Engagement
Telephone: +49-89-382-24753
www.press.bmwgroup.com;

Email: presse@bmw.de

Dorothee Dines
Art Basel
Global Head of Media
Relations
Telephone: + 41 58 206 27 06
Email: dorothee.dines@artbasel.com

 

About Max Hooper Schneider
Max Hooper Schneider
(born Los Angeles, CA 1982) graduated from Harvard University in 2011
with a master’s degree in landscape architecture. The foregrounding of
material technologies and biological systems within this field
continues to inform his artistic practice. Hooper Schneider’s work
develops and explores the aesthetics of succession through the
creation of worlds that materialize and dramatize nature in diverse
ways with nature conceived as a process of ceaseless change and
morphogenic modulation. The resultant work voids the difference
between the natural and the artificial, challenges conventional
systems of classification, and suggests a worldview that strives to
dislocate humans from their assumed position of centrality and
superiority as knowers and actors in the world. Hooper Schneider lives
and works in Los Angeles.

About Art Basel
Founded in 1970 by gallerists
from Basel, Art Basel today stages the world’s premier art shows for
Modern and contemporary art, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong
Kong. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which
is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and
the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with
local institutions for each edition. 

Art Basel’s engagement has expanded beyond art fairs through a number
of new initiatives. In 2014, Art Basel launched its Crowdfunding
Initiative, in collaboration with Kickstarter. This initiative
presents jury-selected art projects to potential benefactors, which
include Art Basel’s vibrant audience and the Kickstarter community.
The initiative has catalyzed much-needed support for outstanding
non-commercial art projects worldwide and so far has helped pledge
over $1.4 million to creative projects around the world. For Art Basel
Cities, launched in 2016, Art Basel is working with selected partner
cities to develop vibrant and content-driven programs specific to the
individual city. Connecting them to the global art world through Art
Basel’s expertise and network, Art Basel Cities supports its partners
to develop their unique cultural landscape. For further information
please visit artbasel.com.

About BMW Group’s Cultural Commitment
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.

Further information: www.bmwgroup.com/culture
and www.bmwgroup.com/culture/overview 

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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 2016, the BMW Group sold approximately 2.367 million cars and
145,000 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.
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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