London/Munich. BMW and Frieze continue their long-term partnership with the major artistic initiative BMW Open Work by Frieze. Curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, the initiative brings together art, design and technology in pioneering multi-platform formats. The artist chosen to create the second BMW Open Work for Frieze London 2018 is New York-based artist Sam Lewitt.
The concept
Curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, BMW Open Work is a major artistic initiative which brings together art, design and technology in pioneering multi-platform formats. The New York-based artist Sam Lewitt is the second artist chosen to create the BMW Open Work by Frieze. Lewitt will debut his ambitious new installation and soundscape at Frieze London, October 4–7, 2018.
Lewitt’s practice investigates the circulation of information and matter, opening up operatively closed systems and institutional structures in the process.
Entitled CORE (the “Work”), Lewitt’s new commission for BMW Open Work focuses on motor engineering and technology, to conceptually and physically explore the production cycle of a BMW engine. Spurred by the artist’s dialogue with BMW engine specialists, CORE uses physical materials and manufacturing techniques from engineering, to re-imagine the engine manufacturing cycle as an engine in itself. In the process CORE engages with the structure of the commissioning system itself, by addressing relations of symbolic and material exchange within the work’s form.
Lewitt’s new commission will unfold as an installation in the BMW Lounge at Frieze London 2018, a soundscape in the Courtesy Car Service at the fair, and online at closed_core.com.
Franchini said: “Now in its second year, BMW Open Work offers to artists the possibility of engaging in a rich dialogue with BMW engineering and design expertise. This dialogue is a unique possibility of encounter and creation between different fields. Working with a sharp artist such as Sam Lewitt, whose project challenges conceptually and sculpturally our understanding at the core of motor corporate production, is absolutely thrilling.”
“Commissioning new work has been at the heart of Frieze London since it began. Through this partnership with BMW, we are thrilled to be supporting ambitious, thought-provoking work and opening up conversations between art, design and technology”, said Jo Stella-Sawicka, Artistic Director, Frieze.
Dr Nicolas Peter, Member of the Board of Management of BMW Group, said: “We are extremely happy seeing BMW Open Work moving forward in its second year. Attilia Fattori Franchini has done an exceptional job shaping this initiative and making it another great example of BMW’s commitment to artistic freedom in creative practice. It has been very exciting to see Sam Lewitt engage with our BMW engineers and experts, and I cannot wait to see the result come to life in our BMW Lounge later in the year.”
