Ecco una nuova tappa del progetto che lega il gruppo BMW ad ArtBasel col progetto The BMW Art Journey, sono stati selezionati i finalisti per la prossima edizione.
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Art Basel and BMW are delighted to present the next artist shortlist and to continue their joint initiative to recognize and support emerging artists from across the world. 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 Ali Kazim (Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai), Zac Langdon-Pole (Michael Lett, Auckland) and Gala Porras-Kim (Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles) as the shortlisted artists showing in Discoveries, the sector for emerging artists at Art Basel's show in Hong Kong.
Art Basel and BMW are delighted to present the next artist shortlist and to continue their joint initiative to recognize and support emerging artists from across the world. 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 Ali Kazim, Zac Langdon-Pole and Gala Porras-Kim as the shortlisted artists showing in Discoveries, the sector for emerging artists at Art Basel's show in Hong Kong.
Ali Kazim at Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai
Ali Kazim (b. 1979) lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Ali Kazim forms multi-layered compositions to create uniquely textured paintings that include elements of narrative andfantasy. He works meticulously in watercolor and graphite, using techniques acquired from studying the watercolor wash and miniature painting techniques of the Bengal andMughal schools. At this year’s Art Basel show in Hong Kong, the artist presents an immersive installation that draws a primary inspiration from the landscape around his hometown of Lahore. Kazim will participate in the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, opening in November 2018 in Brisbane.
Zac Langdon-Pole at Michael Lett, Auckland
Zac Langdon-Pole (b. 1988) lives and works in Berlin, Germany. He studied at ElamSchool of Fine Arts, Auckland and at the Städelschule, Frankfurt. In his work he uses Paper Nautilus Shells, fragile egg-case-shells, made by the genus of Octopedes known as Argonauts, and unique fragments of Meteorite handcrafted to fill the shell’s aperture. At this year’s edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong, Langdon-Pole is presenting an installation of new sculptures that form a poetic exploration of identity and belonging. In 2017, he was awarded for the Ars Viva Prize for young artists living in Germany. Recent exhibitions include Between Bridges, Berlin, Ars Viva 2018, Berlin, S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent and Kunstverein München, Munich.
Gala Porras-Kim at Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles
Gala Porras-Kim (b.1984) lives and works in Los Angeles, United States. She received a Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts in Latin American Studies from University of California, Los Angeles. Her work questions the social and political contexts that influence the manifestation and interpretation of language and history. Her artistic approach comes from a research-based practice that aims to reconsider how intangible subjects have been represented in the fields of linguistics, history, and conservation. At this year's Art Basel show in Hong Kong she is presenting a group of artifacts that reconstruct and reimagine ambiguous historical fragments from various ethnographic institutions. Her work was displayed at solo exhibitions at Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles and LABOR, Mexico City. Recently she has been included in group exhibitions at Seoul Museum of Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
The three artists are now invited to submit a proposal for their very own personal journey, with the winner to be announced in early summer 2018.
The members of the jury are:
Richard Armstrong, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York; Claire Hsu, Director, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; Bose Krishnamachari, President, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India; Matthias Mühling, Director, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich; Pauline J. Yao, Curator, Visual Art M+, Hong Kong.
'As jury, we were impressed by the variety and quantity of works and made a unanimous decision about the three shortlisted artists. In this year’s edition of BMW Art Journey at Art Basel in Hong Kong, the jurors noticed a wide search for narrative with a mostly consistent search for fact. Within the BMW Art Journey this time the number of eligible galleries was by far the greatest, representing artists of the most diverse backgrounds.
We admired Ali Kazim’s meditative approach to the desolate landscape of Pakistan, and found his labor-intensive process combining miniature painting techniques with a contemporary sensibility to be layered and haunting. Zac Langdon-Pole’s work ‘Passport (Argonauta)’ creates a poetical and surprising combination of materials. Proposing a new notion of the passport, the nautilus shell and meteorites from different parts of the world suggesting a metaphysical and timeless idea of identities. We appreciated Gala PorrasKim’s investigation into and imagination of ways in which objects within institutional collections undergo reinterpretation via changing social and physical contexts. She touches on the subjectivity of history and the endless possibilities of making meaning of fragments and traces', 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 Art Basel show in Hong Kong, the 2017 winner of the BMW Art Journey from the Discoveries sector, Astha Butail (represented by GALLERYSKE, New Dehli, Bangalore) presents some first insights into her upcoming project 'In the Absence of Writing' at the BMW Lounge. Throughout her journey, the artist will visit Yazd (Iran), Jerusalem (Israel), London (United Kingdom), Varanasi, Pune, New Delhi and Mumbai (India) to discover memories and living traditions that are passed down through teaching and oral poetry. For the BMW Art Journey, Butail plans to investigate the Zoroastrian Avesta, Jewish Oral Torah and Indian Veda traditions by observing and recording their different memory techniques and interviewing scholars and practitioners of each tradition.
The latest edition in the BMW Art Journey book series is also presented at the fair giving insights about Abigail Reynolds’s BMW Art Journey 'The Ruins of Time: Lost Libraries of the Silk Road'. Images, texts and other documents originating from her experience are included in the book – thus completing a journey that both starts and ends with the institution of the library. 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, please visit bmw-art-journey.com.
