The Bmw H2R at the Frankfurt Motor Show

Olafur Eliasson, one of the most significant representatives of contemporary art, has been commissioned to design the 16th BMW Art Car.

In 2005, this internationally unique collection comprising to date a total of fifteen BMW automobiles designed by famous male and female artists, will be celebrating its 30th anniversary.

With this assignment, Eliasson has taken on the challenge of transforming a technological milestone, the BMW H2R, with which the BMW Group is pursuing its vision of sustained mobility based on the regenerative production of hydrogen as a fuel of the future.

Bmw V12 LMR Art Car 1999 by Jenny Holzer.

With this installment, BMW continues its innovative cooperation with international artists working in the field of technology, mobility and art.

The artist, Olafur Eliasson, was selected by an international committee of curators which met in April 2005 to discuss the future of the BMW Art Car Collection.

The committee included Bruce W. Ferguson (Columbia University School of the Arts in New York), Pi Li (Central Academy of Fine Arts in Peking), Suzanne Pagé (Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), Larry Rinder (California College of the Arts in San Francisco), Donna de Salvo (Whitney Museum of American Art), Prof. Dr. Carla Schulz-Hoffmann (Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich).

Olafur Eliasson - Cubic structural evolution project (2004)
Source: olafureliasson.net

Thanks to his affinity to the field of renewable energies, Olafur Eliasson is an artist capable of meeting the challenges posed by the record-setting vehicle in a creative way.

Born in 1967, the Icelander now lives and works in Berlin. Olafur Eliasson's predominantly sculptural, installative and photographic work is consistently devoted to the complex of topics pertaining to civilization/technology and nature.

When creating his works of art, Eliasson combines complex technology with the ephemeral elements of nature, thereby provoking a conflict between the viewer and the environment.

As a result of large-scale exhibitions of his work held at museums such as the ZKM in Karlsruhe, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Tate Modern in London, as well as his participation in the 50th Biennale di Venezia 2003, he has become highly esteemed in the international art world.

Olafur Eliasson - The antispective situation (2003) - Kanazawa
Museum of Art, Kanazawa, Japan - Source: olafureliasson.net

During 2004, his works were exhibited at the Wolfsburg Art Museum and the Menil Collection in Houston.

His works are to be found in world-famous public and private collections such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

As an artist involved in the design of the 16th BMW Art Car, Eliasson will be closely collaborating not only with a number of different departments within the company assigned to the field of research, development and design, but also with the Cultural Communications Department.

Eliasson himself describes this unique form of collaboration as follows:

"A laboratorial process to research the spectrum of sustainable energy and energy awareness, with a particular interest in hydrogen as a potential future energy-source. This is within the context of my current work that engages with the whole complex of the individual's relation towards mobility, time and space."

After the transportation of the BMW H2R to Eliasson's studio in August of this year, the artist will be occupied until March 2006 with the design of the new Art Car. The new BMW H2R Art Car will then be presented to the public as a work of art at museums throughout the world.

(Source: BMW)