The BMW Group is promoting the new exhibition “Cao Fei. Meta-mentary” at the Lenbachhaus. Presentation of BMW Art Car #18 by internationally renowned multimedia artist Cao Fei from July.

München. Along with “Cao Fei. Meta-mentary”, Lenbachhaus presents an exhibition from April 13 to September 8 in which Cao Fei’s cinematic image and artistic vocabulary become part of the room. The artist is one of the most important representatives of post-digital art worldwide. Created in 2017 BMW’s first Art car with digital features, which will be presented as part of the exhibition at the Lenbachhaus from July 23. The exhibition, curated by Eva Huttenlauch and supported by the BMW Group, will open on April 12 at 7:00 pm.

In his films, photographs and multimedia installations, Cao Fei deals with economic and social upheavals. Digitalization, globalization, changes in urban structures and neighborhoods and thus our living spaces are the basis of his artistic work. His focus is on the situation, how we as humans live, react to the development around us, deal with it or integrate it fully into our lives.

For his works, Cao Fei sometimes spends time in the virtual world himself using his avatars China Tracy and Oz and records his perception of digital realities in individual imagery and specific artistic spaces. Invention and reality, fantasy and memory, digital and human combine to create surreal-dystopian images with natural beauty and can be influenced by the audience.

His exhibition at the Lenbachhaus will also be about how rapid social change is accelerated by digital technologies and how human experience and the self-image of human existence are fundamentally affected and changed. These themes also feature his 18th BMW Art Car.

Cao Fei and the BMW Group
Cao Fei’s collaboration with the BMW Group began in 2017 with the design of the BWM Art Car #18. For the first time, a car became a work of art in progress with the help of augmented reality. Cao Fei’s Art Car project consists of three elements: a video about a spiritual time traveler, a black carbon BMW M6 GT3 and an augmented reality installation consisting of multi-colored light particles, which are displayed through a program programmed for this purpose. As soon as the app is used near the race car, images on the smartphone show floating and constantly changing pieces of light above the BMW M6 GT3 and around the car, which recreates the dynamics of the Chinese ritual to bless new purchases.

The design of the racing car using augmented reality was followed in 2022 by the integration of digital art into the interior of the series cars. In the 50th year of the BMW Group’s cultural mission, Cao Fei created the digital art scene “Quantum Garden”, in which BMW brought digital art into the interior of a car for the first time.

Cao Fei. Meta- mentary

13. April – 08. September 2024
Municipal gallery in Lenbachhaus and art building in Munich
Luisenstraße 33, 80333 Munich

Opening: Friday, April 12, 2024, 7 pm
Press conference: Thursday, April 11, 2024, 11 am
The artist is there.

The BMW Group’s cultural commitment and exclusive updates and in-depth insights on global cultural initiatives can be found on Instagram. @BMWCultureGroup monitored.