The Art Of BMW

BMW 7 Series

BMW Parts: Genuine Works of Art

Throughout November, 18 first year Vehicle Design students at London’s Royal College of Art (RCA) will be designing works of art from genuine BMW parts. Whether they use a brake disc or clutch plate, the best 10 results, judged by a senior BMW designer, will be displayed at the RCA in February 2006. Many of the art works, including the overall winning design, will be constructed by students from the RCA’s sculpture school.

More information on the Genuine Works of Art programme can be found on www.bmw.co.uk/genuineparts, along with details of BMW UK’s marketing activities that feature genuine parts as art works. The partnership with the RCA, and associated marketing programme, aims to highlight that all aftersales sites, whether approved BMW or independent outlets, and BMW owners, should specify genuine BMW parts at the time of repair.

BMW and Bauhaus

BMW looks back to the time of its birth with the sponsorship of one of Tate Modern’s most important exhibitions of 2006. Albers and Moholy-Nagy: From the Bauhaus to the New World runs from March to June next year and focuses on two pioneers of twentieth-century art and visual culture: Josef Albers and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, two of the Bauhaus school’s most influential artists.

The European artists were most influential in the mid-1920s in and around Berlin, at a time and in the city where BMW’s first motorcycle, the BMW R32, made its public debut. The Bauhaus school sought to link art and design, and paid great attention to the work of engineers and manufacturers in the artistic process, a sentiment that is clearly important in the production of 21st Century BMW vehicles.

BMW UK’s marketing director, Uwe Ellinghaus said, "BMW is pleased to be working with Tate Modern and sponsoring this important exhibition. The teachings of the Bauhaus school were of great influence during the first years of BMW’s motorcycle and car design and production in Germany, and much of BMW’s early design and engineering principles are still in evidence today. We look forward to a rewarding and enjoyable relationship."

Credits Run on The Hire

BMW North America has announced that its award-winning internet short-film series, The Hire (www.bmwfilms.com), will end its internet run on October 21, 2005. The short films, that feature the likes of Madonna and James Brown, debuted on-line in 2001 and have since received more than 100 million film views. Brit actor, Clive Owen, features as ‘The Driver’ in the films that saw him pour coffee on Madonna and race the devil through Las Vegas.

The series was praised by the likes of The New York Times and Time Magazine and all eight films were unveiled at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival as a full DVD collection. In 2003, The Hire series was inducted into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and BMW even created its own ‘The Hire’ cable TV channel.