UBS today announced that the work of Swiss photographer, Hannes Schmid, will be shown for the first time in Asia at the Today Art Museum in Beijing. MOMENTOUS, a multi-media, interactive exhibition, organised by the museum, will open to the public on Sunday 22 At the centre of the exhibition five monumental mobile sculptures will turn in perpetual motion upon which photographs and moving image will be projected. Visitors will be invited to play an active part in the creation of this work synthesizing images of their own, uploaded through smart phones and a digital APP, with those of the artist.
The populated work will be framed within Schmid’s multi-media series on Formula 1, Short Stories and Moment of a Moment, featuring high-tech cars and heroic drivers, exploring the themes of speed and time.Large-scale intimate and unconventional portraits of the Formula 1 drivers Jenson Button, Jacques Villeneuve and Takuma Sato will be presented, photographed in Pierre Cardin’s futuristic Bubble House on the French Cote d’Azur. These portraits will sit alongside landscape studies documenting the trial run by BAR-Honda of the envisioned Speed Record on the Salt Flats of Utah.
Hannes Schmid is closely connected to Chinese culture through family, his Chinese wife and two children. He envisions MOMENTOUS as a synthesis of two cultural spheres and invites visitors to consider interweaving approaches to art and philosophy from different cultures: “In recent years it has become increasingly obvious to me how much Chinese civilization has influenced our own. I am interested in further exploring the future of this cultural exchange and I want this exhibition to express above all the energy that this exchange generates.”
Mr. David Li, Chairman and Country Head for China, UBS AG said: “UBS has a rich history of supporting cultural and artistic endeavors that encourage our clients and the public to actively participate in the art world. Located in Beijing, one of the world’s most important commercial metropolises, MOMENTOUS will bring together Eastern and Western aesthetics and culture and will provide insight into contemporary art in one of the world’s fastest developing cultural capitals.”
The exhibition has been co-curated by Kornelia Imesch, art historian and professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Architecture at the University of Lausanne and Jürg Wey. Extensive education and public programmes will accompany the exhibition including public talks at the Today Art Museum and CAFA.
Alex Gao, Executive Director of the Today Art Museum said: “It is our pleasure to present Hannes Schmid’s works to the visitors of Today Art Museum. MOMENTOUS is one of the most important exhibitions at Today Art Museum this year. We hope our visitors are provoked into questioning the language of art and contemporary art. The aim of this exhibition is to explore whether interactive multimedia art can become the next art trend.”
*image (left)
MOMENTOUS, Formula 1, View of exhibition, 2014
courtesy of the artist