| Duration: |
May 29 – July 20.2008 |
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| Press preview: |
May 28. 2008, 11.00
Please apply for accreditation for the press conference
being held at 11.00 on 28.05.2008 at the following address:
press@neumann-luz.de |
| Opening: |
May 28. 2008, 19.00 |
| Organizer: |
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen
Die Neue Sammlung – the State Museum of Applied Art and Design Munich
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| Location: |
Pinakothek der Moderne, Barer Str.
40, Munich |
| Opening hours:: |
Thuesday – Sunday 10 – 18, Thursday
10 – 20
Info-Tel +49 (0)89 / 272725-0 |
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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.
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
to achieve speed records and at the same time point to the future
in terms of sustainable mobility.
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.
» How do we give a tangible dimension to the fact that
our engagement in the world has global consequences? How can we as
consumers
and creators of reality change the trajectory of transportation?
Of moving? How can we put pressure on the car as an object?«
As a work of art located in time, Olafur Eliasson’s transformation
of the H2R–automobile is a design provocation that opens up
debates about the profound impact of art and design in their contemporary
social setting.
» Traditional car design has defined the car as
a desirable object, a fetish almost, and a commodity, depriving it
of its relationship
to its surroundings and to time. Car design has primarily focused
on the most profitable way of facilitating and mediating physical
movement. We have to challenge this, and I think the task is to reintroduce
time as the key producer of our experiences. Reality then becomes
temporal reality. This reintroduction will give us the possibility
to perceive the car and the consequences of driving in relation to
our own bodies.«
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 1.5 m high, 5.25 m long and 2.5 m 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.
The exhibition is curated
by Corinna Rösner and Bernhart Schwenk.
Presentation: chezweitz,
Berlin / Detlef Weitz, Roseapple
An exhibition in close collaboration
with BMW.
Lars Müller Publishers have published a 336-page comprehensive
publication accompanying the exhibition and documenting as an integral
part of the project the 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.
(Price: ca. € 34,90, ISBN 978-3-03778-117-3)
Further information and images
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Tine Nehler, M.A.
Head of press department
Pinakothek der Moderne
Tel. +49(0)89 /23805-280
Fax +498(0) 89 /23805-125
E-Mail nehler@pinakothek.de |
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