BMW Art Journey artist shortlist announced during Art Basel in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong. Already in its third year Art Basel and
BMW continue their joint initiative to recognize and support emerging
artists worldwide with the announcement of the shortlist for the next
BMW Art Journey during this year’s Art Basel in Hong Kong. Like a
mobile studio, the BMW Art Journey can take artists almost anywhere in
the world to develop new ideas and envision new creative projects. 

Today, an international expert jury announced the following shortlist
of three artists showing in Discoveries, the sector for emerging
artists, at Art Basel’s Hong Kong show:

Astha Butail at GALLERYSKE, Bangalore

Astha Butail, born in 1977 in Amritsar, India, lives and works in
Gurgaon. Central to her artistic practice is the use of geometry as a
means of inquiry to understand how different composite elements of an
entity relate to its whole. Her themes are memory and time, the idea
of the archive, and collaborative authorship. At this year’s Art Basel
in Hong Kong, Butail is presenting her work titled “Turning towards
pure white” (2017) including an assemblage of wall and floor based
elements as well as framed panels, three-dimensional pieces extruded
from the picture plane, and a participatory book. Butail’s debut solo
exhibition was shown at GALLERYSKE, Bangalore. Recent group
exhibitions include Experimenter, Kolkata, Devi Art Foundation,
Gurgaon, and Masquelibros Artists’ Book Fair, Madrid. 

Julian Charrière at Dittrich Schlechtriem, Berlin

Born in 1987 in Morges, Switzerland, Julian Charrière lives and works
in Berlin. He studied at the Berlin University of Arts. Charrière’s
artistic practice includes performance, sculpture, and photography.
His projects often stem from fieldwork in remote locations with acute
geophysical identities such as volcanoes, ice-fields, and radioactive
sites. At Art Basel in Hong Kong Charrière is presenting his work
“Coconut Lead Fondue” (2016), consisting of a series of large format
photographs, two vitrine sculptures and an installation. Charrière’s
solo exhibitions include Sean Kelly, New York, Sies + Höke,
Dusseldorf, and Musée Cantonal Des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne. The artist
has exhibited in recent group shows at KW Institute for Contemporary
Art, Berlin, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna and will exhibit at the 2017
Biennale in Venice. 

Lin Ke at BANK, Shanghai

Born in 1984 in Wenzhou, China, Lin Ke lives and works in Beijing. He
graduated from the New Media Arts Department of the China Academy of
Art in 2008 and received the OCAT – Pierre Huber Art Prize in 2014 and
the Chinese Youth Artist Award of the 9th AAC Art 2015. At Art Basel
in Hong Kong, the artist is presenting “Like Me” (2016), a video
recording of a performance and two image based works, showing his
exploration of the variety of the World Wide Web, such as applications
functioning as catalyst for making art and self-portraiture. Ke’s work
has been exhibited at ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe,
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, and
the 11th Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai.

These three shortlisted artists are now invited to develop a proposal
for their ideal journey, with the winner to be announced in the early
summer of 2017.

The members of the expert jury in Hong Kong are:

Claire Hsu, Director, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong

Bose Krishnamachari, President, Kochi-Muziris
Biennale, India

Matthias Mühling, Director, Städtische Galerie im
Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau, Munich

Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator of Asian Art, and
Senior Advisor, Global Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Pauline J. Yao, Curator Visual Art, M+, Hong Kong

“This group represents the exceptionally strong selection of this
year’s Discoveries Sector, which was distinguished by the
participation of adventurous young artists and galleries from around
the globe. As a jury, we made a unanimous decision about the three
shortlisted artists, while acknowledging the many powerful works and
installations on display. These three artists represent a broad
diversity of art practices—from photography, post-internet/digital
aesthetics, and installation. Each artist is connected to a particular
history, school, and tradition, and they come from very different
parts of the world. We eagerly look forward to reading their proposals
for the BMW Art Journey,” states the jury.

In collaboration with the winning artist, the journey will be
documented and shared with the public through publications, online and
social media. 

During this year’s show in Hong Kong, British artist Abigail
Reynolds
(represented by Rokeby, London), one of the BMW Art
Journey winners in 2016, presents an installation of work made in
response to her epic journey ‘The Ruins of Time: Lost Libraries of the
Silk Road’. Reynolds’ journey took her to sites dating from 291 BC to
2011 including China, Egypt, Italy, Iran, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
Along the way, Reynolds gathered material in various forms including
16mm film, photography, microscopic imagery, written text, plans and
cataloguing systems. Based on this extensive research, she has created
a cluster of objects, structures and moving-image works, the latter
being her first attempt to work in this medium on display in the BMW
Lounge. Images, texts and other documents originating from the
experience will be included in a book – thus completing a journey that
both starts and ends with the institution of the library. 

The latest edition in the BMW Art Journey book series, ‘For whom the
Bell Tolls’ is also presented at the fair. The book gives insights
about Samson Young’s BMW Art Journey and contains the
artist’s travel diary with personal reflections and descriptions of
the locations he visited in twelve countries on five continents.
Included in the volume is a suite of sound sketches evoking the
acoustic landscape of the bells, along with a brochure for a
multimedia walk Young staged during Art Basel’s show in Hong Kong in 2016. 

Past winners of the BMW Art Journey include sound and performance
artist Samson Young (presented by a.m. Space, Hong
Kong at Art Basel’s Hong Kong show in 2015), who will represent Hong
Kong at the 2017 Venice Biennale; German video artists Henning
Fehr and Philipp Rühr
(presented by Galerie Max Mayer,
Dusseldorf at Art Basel’s Miami Beach show in 2015); British artist
Abigail Reynolds (presented by Rokeby, London at
Art Basel’s show in Hong Kong in 2016) as well as Max Hooper
Schneider
who was recently announced as the fourth winner
(presented by High Art, Paris at Art Basel’s Miami Beach show in 2016).

Launched in 2015, the BMW Art Journey is a global collaboration
between Art Basel and BMW, which has been created to recognize and
support emerging artists worldwide. The prize is open to artists who
are showing in Discoveries and Positions in the Hong Kong and Miami
Beach show respectively. Two judging expert panels, comprised of
internationally renowned experts, shortlist three artists, who are
then invited to submit proposals for a journey aimed to further
develop their ideas and artistic work. For further information on the
BMW Art Journey please visit: bmw-art-journey.com. 

BMW has supported Art Basel’s shows in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong
Kong as a long-term partner for many years. 

 

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;
E-mail: presse@bmw.de

 

Dorothee Dines Art Basel

Global Head of Media Relations

Tel. +41 58 206 27 06,
press@artbasel.com

 

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 was approximately
€ 9.67 billion on revenues amounting to € 94.16 billion. As of 31
December 2016, the BMW Group had a workforce of 124,729 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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