For the seventh consecutive year, Frieze and BMW continue their long-term partnership with the art initiative BMW Open Work by Frieze. Featuring as part of the Frieze London art fair, it invites an artist to develop an ambitious project utilising BMW design and technology to pursue their practice in a new direction. The initiative aims to bring together art, innovation, technology and design in a pioneering multi-platform format.
This year’s collaboration featured Marseille-based artist Sara Sadik and was curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini. Sadik’s work is often inspired by video games, anime, science fiction and French rap, and puts forward characters facing challenges and striving to achieve moral and physical transformation.
The piece, LA POTION (EH), continued Sadik’s interest in the possibilities of computer-generated scenarios, unfolding as an interactive video game, devised to be played exclusively in the all new, fully electric BMW i5. The game was also presented as a video installation displayed both on the exterior façade of KOKO and inside the BMW Lounge. Inspired by collaboration with the BMW gaming team (AirConsole) as well as MyModes technology – which allows the driver to set the car to their mood – Sadik imagined the new BMW i5 as a character that invites the public to delve into their emotions.
“I like to work with technology to make my work interactive and this was the best context to do it. The way I worked with it, is by imagining different maps the avatar will go into, and each map depends on an emotion – so you start in the anxiety map, and you end in the serenity by going through the melancholy one. Regarding the subject that I talk about and my references, it’s super important for me that people I’m talking about are people that felt a connection to my work and are able to see it.”
“I couldn’t be more excited to work with Sara Sadik, whose practice carefully investigates and mines the intersection of art, gaming and digital technology. Sadik’s project for BMW Open Work 2023 - a video game specially conceived for the BMW i5, using the car as a unique experiential device, and a film to play in the BMW lounge - brings the program in a wholly new direction. I can’t wait for this project to take over the spaces of KOKO, reinforcing Frieze and BMW’s joint commitment to experimental artistic practices.”
Attilia Fattori Franchini, BMW Open Work Curator
In celebration of their long-term collaboration, BMW partnered with Frieze once again to present Frieze Music in London, welcoming Mercury Prize nominee Loyle Carner to perform at the iconic KOKO club.
