A video game using the BMW i5’s unique experiential device, and a supporting film installation, is the winning proposal for this year’s BMW Open Work at Frieze London. The work of Sara Sadik, “LA POTION (EH),” involves an interactive playable game featuring BMW’s AirConsole technology, conceived for the new electric car in collaboration with the carmaker’s Gaming and Innovation Lab experts. Meanwhile, the i5’s design team will support Sadik in the game’s technical conception and extend the car’s gaming experience through sound and light.
Based in Marseille, France, Sadik investigates the crossroads of art, gaming and digital technology. Her video and performance practice lies halfway between fiction and documentary, with video games, anime, science fiction and even French rap informing her stories and characters who appear to be striving to achieve moral and physical transformation.
Sadik’s Frieze commission looks at the changing emotional state of young male characters who struggle to express their feelings freely. The artist examines the construction and the performance of a certain kind of masculinity, its ethical and moral codes, and what it reveals about societal structures more broadly. Through computer-generated scenarios, Sadik is studying the conditions of children who grow up in disadvantaged contexts, using storytelling and world-building to make these issues visible.
“Sadik’s project for BMW Open Work brings the program in a wholly new direction,” says the exhibition curator Attilia Fattori Franchini. “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.”
The annual BMW Open Work project for Frieze London is a lively joint initiative between the carmaker and the art fair designed to bring together visual art, design and technology.
Sadik follows from LA-based artist Nikita Gale, who last year took on the politics of sound. Gale’s contribution to Frieze London was a fascinating multi-layered piece addressing current discourse surrounding sound: what we are guided to see, what we are told to hear, and invisible voices. Through design and sound, Gale asks viewers to review their biases and question what has come before.
“Our vision is to enable co-creation across art, innovation, technology and design,” explains Hedwig Solis Weinstein, head of BMW arts and thought leadership collaboration. “It’s all about the importance of dialogue between individuals across disciplines.”
This year Frieze celebrates its 20th anniversary with its most international edition to date and an extensive program of cultural collaborations and events. Sadik’s artwork is scheduled to premiere at KOKO in Camden Town and will be on show in the BMW Lounge during Frieze London.
The 20th edition of Frieze London takes place from October 11-15, 2023.