“Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab” Opens at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in October. Exhibition examines major themes and ideas from the BMW Guggenheim Lab.

New York/ Munich. From 2011 to 2013, the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a mobile think-tank for exploring urban life, traveled to New York, Berlin, and Mumbai to inspire innovative ideas for urban design and new ways of thinking about cities. To sum up the major themes and ideas that emerged during this two-year global journey, the Guggenheim Museum will present the exhibition “Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab”, on view from October 11, 2013 to January 5, 2014.   

"The Guggenheim is proud of the extraordinary achievements of the BMW Guggenheim Lab and the multitude of ideas and conversations it has inspired," stated Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. "Thanks to BMW Group’s support and collaboration, the Lab has allowed us to go far beyond our walls and into the heart of cities, stimulating a broad and ongoing dialogue about urban life. It has attracted tens of thousands of enthusiastic participants, on-site and online, and has been recognized by the United Nations as an exemplary project. With this special exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York, we celebrate the learnings of the Lab along with new insights from contributors around the world.” 

“Participatory City” features 100 of the key trends published in the New York, Berlin, and Mumbai editions of 100 Urban Trends: A Glossary of Ideas from the BMW Guggenheim Lab,each illustrated bycontributions from a global roster of architects, academics, designers, and artists, as well as from Lab programs and projects. The exhibition will represent the trends in an exclusively digital installation through drawings, sketches, short videos, and renderings. 

“The exhibition presents innovative visions for cities and the use of public space based on the ideas that emerged in New York, Berlin, and Mumbai,” said Maria Nicanor, Curator of the BMW Guggenheim Lab and Associate Curator, Architecture. “We are excited to highlight new perspectives from emerging and established talents who are rethinking and reshaping urban environments around the world. As the Lab returns to New York with this presentation, we hope to further engage the public in our global conversation about what cities are, and what they can be.”

“Participatory City” also will showcase the Lab’s architects, graphic designers, and Lab Team members and a selection of contributors who helped bring the Lab to life on three continents. 

Exhibition:                   Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab

Venue:                        Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York

Location:                     Annex Level 2

Dates:                         October 11, 2013–January 5, 2014

Press Preview:             Thursday, October 10, 2013, 10 am–1 pm 

The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of public programs exploring architecture, urbanism, and the ways in which people interact with cities and public space. 

A series of articles that focus and expand on selected urban trends from the New York, Berlin, and Mumbai Labs is currently appearing on Lab | Log, the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s blog. 

The BMW Guggenheim Lab’s global program will conclude with the close of the exhibition. 

About the BMW Guggenheim Lab

A co-initiative of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the BMW Group, the BMW Guggenheim Lab launched in New York (August 3 – October 16, 2011) with a focus on the theme “Confronting Comfort”; traveled to Berlin (June 15 – July 29, 2012), with the theme “Making,” emphasizing citizen participation in shaping cities; and finally opened at multiple sites in Mumbai (December 9, 2012 – January 20, 2013), where projects and programs explored the theme “Privacy” and related issues of public space. Participants from more than 160 countries and territories around the world participated in the Lab’s more than 500 public programs, workshops, lectures, and research and urban projects, both on-site and online. The BMW Guggenheim Lab is curated by Maria Nicanor of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. 

The project’s blog, Lab | Log, features interviews with BMW Guggenheim Lab contributors and includes coverage of the Lab’s activities. The public is invited to visit  bmwguggenheimlab.org where the experiences the Lab helped generate are documented online and join the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s dedicated social communities on Twitter (@BMWGuggLab and #BGLab), Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr, and to subscribe to the Lab’s e-newsletter for the latest project updates. 

For the complete press materials, go to bmwguggenheimlab.org/presskits

For publicity images, go to bmwguggenheimlab.org/pressimages

For publicity videos, go to bmwguggenheimlab.org/pressvideos

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About BMW’s Cultural Commitment

For more than 40 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in over 100 cultural cooperations worldwide. The company places the main focus of its long-term commitment on modern and contemporary art, jazz and classical music as well as architecture and design. In 1972, three large-scale paintings were created by the artist Gerhard Richter specifically for the foyer of the BMW Group's Munich headquarters. Since then, artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Eliasson, Jeff Koons, Zubin Metha, Daniel Barenboim and Anna Netrebko have co-operated with BMW. The company has also commissioned famous architects such as Karl Schwanzer, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelb(l)au to design important corporate buildings and plants. In 2011, the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a global initiative of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Guggenheim Museum and the BMW Group celebrated its world premiere in New York. The BMW Group takes absolute creative freedom in all the cultural activities it is involved in for granted – as this is just as essential for groundbreaking artistic work as it is for major innovations in a successful business.

Further information: www.bmwgroup.com/culture and www.bmwgroup.com/culture/overview 

The BMW Group

The BMW Group is the leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles in the world with its BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 28 production and assembly facilities in 13 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries. 

In 2012, the BMW Group sold about 1.85 million cars and more than 117,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the financial year 2012 was euro 7.82 billion on revenues amounting to euro 76.85 billion. At 31 December 2012, the BMW Group had a workforce of 105,876 employees. 

The success of the BMW Group has always been built on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy. As a result of its efforts, the BMW Group has been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last eight years.

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For questions please contact:

Dr. Thomas Girst

BMW Group Corporate and Governmental Affairs

Head of Cultural Engagement

Telephone: +49 89-382-24753, Fax: +49 89-382-10881

Leonie Laskowski

BMW Group Corporate and Governmental Affairs

Cultural Engagement

Telephone: +49 89-382-45382, Fax: +49 89-382-10881

Media Website: www.press.bmwgroup.com

E-mail: presse@bmw.de