Olafur Eliasson
dal 27/5/2008 al 19/7/2008
Segnalato da
27/5/2008
Olafur Eliasson
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Your mobile expectations. The longstanding interest of the Danish artist in the connection between natural phenomena and industrial technology is reflected in his discourse with the BMW H2R racing car. In this forward-looking car, one that is powered by hydrogen, the features of extreme speed and environmental friendliness are no longer diametrically opposed to each other. As a work of art located in time, his transformation of the automobile opens up debates about the profound impact of art and design in their contemporary social setting.
curated by Corinna Rösner and Bernhart Schwenk.
At his only museum exhibition in Germany this year, the
Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson (*1967) will present his project
developed over the past three years and entitled »Your mobile expectations:
BMW H2R project« at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.
Your mobile expectations: BMW H2R project.
The final version of the 16th BMW Art Car, the outer shell of which Eliasson
replaces with a fragile skin of ice, will be celebrating its premiere in
Munich. This Eliasson-designed automobile, the BMW H2R, is a racing car
powered by hydrogen that has been developed by BMW to achieve speed records
and at the same time point to the future in terms of sustainable mobility.
Eliasson’s work will be exhibited inside an accessible cooling chamber at a
temperature of minus 10 degrees Celsius. It holds around two dozen people
and blankets are available to keep the visitors warm. The energy used for
the duration of the exhibition is »ecological electricity«. This supports
the use and distribution of regenerative energy sources.
Olafur Eliasson, whose works are currently being presented in a
comprehensive overview exhibition at the MoMA and the P.S.1 in New York,
describes the debate relating to the hydrogen powered racing car in context
with his artistic ideas: "By bringing together art, design, social and
environmental issues, I hope to contribute to a different way of
thinking-feeling-experiencing cars and seeing them in relation to the time
and space in which we live. Fundamentally speaking, I don’t believe that
objects exist in isolation. They are always part of a complex set of
physical and mental relationships; they change according to the context and
depend on the user’s values and expectations. They embrace relativity and
the passing of time."
Olafur Eliasson has removed the outer covering of the H2R prototype and
replaced it with a complex skin of two reflecting layers of superimposed
metal spanning the body of the car. This shape is covered with fragile
layers of ice. Thus Eliasson transforms an object of advanced automobile
technology and industrial design into a work of art reflecting themes of
mobility, temporality, renewable energies and the relationship between car
production and global warming in a sophisticated and poetic way.
As a work of art located in time, Olafur Eliasson’s transformation of the
H2R automobile opens up debates about the profound impact of art and design
in their contemporary social setting. To create and conserve the car’s ice
coating, the vehicle is stored in a freezer. Over a period of several days
Eliasson had the car’s exposed frame sprayed with some 2000 litres of water
to gradually produce the layers of ice. This sculpture, which is in constant
interplay with the room temperature surrounding it, is around 150 cm high,
525 cm long and 250 cm wide. The mono frequency light located inside the
sculpture attracts the eye to the interspace containing the icescape which
is exposed to a continuous melting and freezing process.
In Eliasson’s sculptures and atmospherically unmistakable installations one
senses not only the conditions under which they come about and the impact of
their energy but also the beauty of natural phenomena. It is it not until
they enter the perceptions of the viewer that they complement each other.
Presentation: chezweitz & roseapple, Berlin
An exhibition in close collaboration with BMW
The BMW Art Car Collection.
Established in 1975, the BMW Art Car Collection now includes 16 works by
prominent artists – including David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Roy Lichtenstein,
Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol – each making a unique
artistic statement about the appearance and meaning of cars in our time. It
was the French racing driver Hervé Poulain who first commissioned an artist
–his friend Alexander Calder– to paint his BMW racecar in the early 1970s,
and this was the spark that led BMW to develop the Art Car program. Apart
from being permanently displayed at the BMW Museum in Munich, cars from the
collection have been exhibited by numerous museums and galleries worldwide,
including the Louvre in Paris, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Powerhouse
Museum in Sydney, and the Guggenheim museums in New York and Bilbao.
In April 2005, BMW selected Eliasson for its 16th Art Car commission, with
input from an international board of curators comprising Bruce W. Ferguson,
dean of Columbia University in New York; Pi Li from the Central Academy of
Fine Arts in Peking; Suzanne Pagé, director of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la
Ville de Paris; Larry Rinder, dean of California College of the Arts in San
Francisco; Donna de Salvo, chief curator at the Whitney Museum of American
Art in New York; and Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, assistant head curator of the
Bavarian State Picture Collections. The board of curators met at the
Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich for two days in April 2005.
Dr. Norbert Reithofer, Chairman of the Board of the BMW AG, commented on
the three-year cooperation with the artist: »While working on his Art Car
Project, Olafur Eliasson had been engaged in an intensive exchange of ideas
with our engineers and designers for a number of years. Within the framework
of the BMW Group’s long-term commitment to art and culture, the intense
discussion between the artist and our company reached beyond the boundaries
of purely cultural engagement. Eliasson’s work poses questions also raised
by our company. Our corporate vision of sustainable mobility is based on
innovative research, new technologies and the use of regenerative energy,
which also secures our company’s prospects for the future. We believe
solutions can only be achieved when politics, industry and society all work
together. And the BMW Group is proud to promote such a joint effort.«
The publication.
Lars Müller Publishers have published a 336-page comprehensive publication
accompanying the exhibition. The book was designed by Olafur Eliasson and
his studio as an integral part of the project and documents. many
discussions, interviews and the two »Life in Space« symposiums. Dialogue
partners during the »Your mobile expectations: BMW H2R project« include
Chris Bangle, Ib Chorkendorff, Yona, Friedmann, Jens Hjorth, Adrian van
Hooydonk, Caroline A. Jones, Bart Lootsma, Ricardo Scofidio, Peter Weibel
and Sabine Zemelka.
Press preview: 28.05.2008, 11
Opening: 28.05.2008, 19
Pinakothek der Moderne
Barer Strasse 40 - Munich