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giugno 14, 2018 - BMW

Zac Langdon-Pole selected for next BMW Art Journey.

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New Zealand artist to explore varied histories of celestial mapping – from Central Europe to Pacific Islands.

Munich/Basel. Art Basel and #BMW are delighted to present #zaclangdonpole as the next #BMW Art Journey winner. An international jury selected him unanimously from a shortlist of three artists whose works were exhibited in the Discoveries sector at this year’s Art Basel show in Hong Kong. #zaclangdonpole is represented by Michael Lett in Auckland.

Langdon-Pole’s journey “Sutures of the Sky,” as his proposal is titled, will take him later this year across a world that humans and birds have been navigating through millennia. He will follow the flight paths of birds like the white stork or the arctic tern, traveling along the earth’s axis where the Northern and Southern Hemispheres’ summers intersect. Migrating birds cover some of the longest distances traveled by any living being. Their routes have guided the Polynesian pathfinders across the seas.

Inspired by this ancient celestial tracing, Langdon-Pole's journey questions the position of humans as the center of the world. Weaving through Central Europe, Southern Africa, and the Pacific Islands of Samoa and Hawaii, his #BMW Art Journey seeks to understand how culture intersects with the science of celestial mapping— and from there flows into larger existential inquiries about who we are and how we are situated in the world.

The international jury consisted of 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.

“The first artistic expressions of humanity, until the 19th century, had been largely inspired by the beauty, grandeur, and spellbinding mysteries of nature,” the jury noted in its statement. “After the Enlightenment, this view of the wonders of the world became outdated. Zac Langdon-Pole's concept of an artist's journey brings this sense of wonder back to art, and as an occasion for ideological and political reflection. We were particularly impressed by how the artist plans to meet experts in various disciplines to share his experience and join him as interlocutors.”

Zac Langdon-Pole was announced as the next #BMW Art Journey winner at the #BMW Art Journey Talk on June 13 during Art Basel in Basel. Art Basel and #BMW will collaborate with the artist to document the journey and share it with a broader public through print publications, online and social media.

In addition to #zaclangdonpole, the shortlisted artists from the Discoveries sector for emerging artists at Art Basel in Hong Kong were: Ali Kazim (represented by Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai) and Gala Porras-Kim (represented by Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles).

The jury took note of the exceptionally detailed and thoughtful proposals tendered by the other two finalists, both of whom proposed journeys with an emphasis on archeology. The jury commended Gale Porras-Kim (b. 1984) and Ali Kazim (b. 1979) for their efforts to “link past and present and bridge reality and fiction.”

The Los Angeles-Based Gala Porras Kim “takes a material we often take for granted—stone—to investigate archeology and its relationship to truth,” the jury noted. “Her proposal is an ambitious look at mapping seminal and recently-discovered ancient stone sculptures—man-made and natural—across multiple geographies and moments in time. By employing satellite technology alongside other techniques, she has sought to further extract histories that are always a combination of both fact and fiction.”

Similarly, Ali Kazim, who lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan, “seeks to uncover relationships between history, culture, and the invisible workings of nature and time. His approach is invested with a desire to reexamine the territory that exists between material reality and human imagination. In visiting actual archaeological sites and seeing actual objects from Gandharan culture that extends across Asia and Europe, Kazim proposed to merge these visual resources with his own artistic language to yield a unique set of drawings and sculptures.”

Launched in 2015, the #BMW Art Journey is a collaboration between Art Basel and #BMW, created to recognize and support emerging artists worldwide. The unique award is open to artists who are exhibiting in the Discoveries sector during Art Basel in Hong Kong. A judging panel comprised of internationally renowned experts meet first to select a shortlist three artists from the sector, who are then invited to submit proposals for a journey aimed to further develop their ideas and artistic work. The jury reconvenes to choose a winner from the three proposals.

Past winners of the #BMW Art Journey include sound and performance artist Samson Young (presented by a.m. Space, Hong Kong at Art Basel's Hong Kong show in 2015), who represented Hong Kong at the 2017 Venice Biennale; German video artists Henning Fehr and Philipp Rühr (presented by Galerie Max Mayer, Dusseldorf at Art Basel's Miami Beach show in 2015); British artist Abigail Reynolds (presented by Rokeby, London at Art Basel's show in Hong Kong in 2016) as well as Max Hooper Schneider (presented by High Art, Paris at Art Basel's Miami Beach show in 2016), Astha Butail (presented by GALLERYSKE, New Dehli, Bangalore at Art Basel ́s Hong Kong show in 2017) and Jamal Cyrus (presented by Inman Gallery, Houston at Art Basel ́s Miami Beach show in 2017).

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.