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ottobre 14, 2021 - BMW

BMW ART MAKERS. New BMW Group France arts patronage program to support artist-curator duo leading to the completion of a visual art project

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Paris. After twenty wonderful years spent supporting photographers and ten years of the BMW Residency, BMW Group France is now reorienting its support for the arts and reinventing its model. While its new program continues to focus on emerging work, experimentation and image-making, the scheme's scope has been broadened to include all visual arts, with a scholarship offered to an artist-curator duo and a budget available for researching and producing works.

The human-machine relationship, creativity and innovation, support and commitment are all key BMW Group values. Support is evident in the patron company's close collaboration with the artists. It works with them at each step of the way, respects their vision, enables them to take bold steps, and provides them with the material and financial resources required to complete their project. Commitment is reflected in our belief that involvement in cultural patronage a self-evident step, since it initiates an emotional conversation with our society. Everything makes sense in this light. A people-focused approach is a key element of our vision.The freedom to create is equally vital to artists and BMW as a designer of disruptive innovations for sustainable and responsible mobility.

BMW ART MAKERS: a program supporting experimental and visual art to see differently.
"In a world full of uncertainty, BMW ART MAKERS represents an opportunity for emerging talent in the visual arts world. The program encourages artists to take an alternative perspective on the major issues facing the modern world and on key societal challenges. They are given complete freedom to develop this perspective through experimentation and completion of a multi-dimensional visual arts project", comments Vincent Salimon, CEO of BMW Group France.

For 10 years, the BMW Residency, under the remarkable and demanding artistic direction of François Cheval, has accompanied laureates who questioned the new practices linked to the history of photography at the Nicéphore Niépce Museum, and then new techniques and the relationship to the image at GOBELINS.

Today, BMW Group France is now seeking to address the profound societal change currently taking place. The BMW ART MAKERS new program supports projects that essentially involve producing images, but also entail exploration of all contemporary image-making dimensions and formats (photography, film, video and computer-generated, virtual, digital images and their presentation to audiences), choosing and researching media, reproduction techniques, and dissemination networks.

BMW ART MAKERS: a scholarship and production budget for an artist-curator duo seeking to complete a joint artistic project.
Since two brains are better than one, BMW ART MAKERS is seeking to bring together and support an emerging visual artist and a curator through its calls for applications for which the two parties must apply jointly. This partnership draws on the strength of a strong, like-minded duo to generate the trust and competitive spirit required for completing a major project from the initial idea to the end work. The curator is just as important as the artist in terms of implementing an artistic project and ensuring a concrete piece of work results from it.

This is the first time that a program of this scale offer a curator support through a visual arts project scholarship alongside an artist. S/he will perform the role of artistic director, scenographer and designer, ensuring that the project is completed to the artistic standards, time frame and budget specified in the call for applications.

BMW ART MAKERS: unique mentoring provision from jury members.
Since big ideas need plenty of support to get off the ground, members of the project selection jury will also act as mentors during the creative process. BMW Group France would like to sincerely thank these major figures in the art world for accepting this role so enthusiastically and ensuring that the project and work meet the highest standards.

The BMW ART MAKERS jury consists of:

  • Maryse Bataillard, Head of Cultural Patronage at BMW France
  • Léa Bismuth, curator and art critic
  • Florence Bourgeois, Director of Paris Photo
  • Hervé Digne, collector
  • Nathalie Mamane Cohen, collector
  • Chantal Nedjib, photography image consultant
  • Jérôme Poggi, Galerie Jérôme Poggi
  • Christoph Wiesner, Director of Rencontres d’Arles

BMW ART MAKERS: financial and material support.
And since big ideas need to be funded and given concrete expression, BMW Group France is offering:

  • a €10,000 scholarship for the artist
  • an €8,000 scholarship for the curator
  • a €15,000 budget for researching and producing worksproduction of a personal exhibition included in the program for Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo
  • mentoring from jury members
  • support with communications

BMW ART MAKERS: thinking, creating, and most importantly... making things happen.
Research and experimentation are only the starting points of the artistic project. Once completed, BMW Group France will promote the project through major international arts events including the Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo.

Responding to the call for applications.
Duos can submit their applications between October 8 and December 15, 2021 through the dedicated platform https://bmw-art-makers.plateformecandidature.com/. Further information is available on https://www.instagram.com/bmwgroupculture_fr/. Nominated duos will be contacted in early January to present their project to the jury and the winning duo will be announced mid-January 2022.

BMW Group and art.
Over the past 50 years, BMW Group has proven its commitment to culture, running the full gamut from Frank Stella to Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, and most recently, the emerging artists of the BMW Residency. All these years have been spent promoting a fresh artistic perspective and encouraging myriad combinations of different techniques, whether in contemporary art, music, architecture, design or photography, which BMW France has been patron since 2003. This has led to the completion of approximately one hundred projects throughout the world.