Sara Sadik to create 2023 BMW Open Work by Frieze. New film and video game, using the new AirConsole technology of the BMW i5 as a playing device, will premiere at KOKO as part of Frieze London.

Note: This press release is a 1:1 copy of the original issued by BMW headquarters in Germany. No adaptations have been made to cater for the UK market.

BMW and Frieze continue their long-term partnership with BMW Open Work by Frieze, the annual major art initiative. In 2023, Marseille-based artist Sara Sadik will debut a film and video game conceived for the new BMW i5 at KOKO in Camden Town. The pioneering multi-platform format, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini is bringing together art, technology and design.

Both works will premiere during Frieze London, which runs October 11-15, 2023. This year the fair celebrates its 20th anniversary with its most international edition to date and an extensive programme of cultural collaborations and events, including the BMW Open Work format.

Attilia Fattori Franchini (Curator, BMW Open Work) said: “I couldn’t be more excited to work with Sara Sadik, whose practice carefully investigates and mines the intersection of art, gaming and digital technology. Sadik’s project for BMW Open Work 2023 - a video game specially conceived for the BMW i5, using the car as a unique experiential device, and a film to play in the BMW lounge - brings the program in a wholly new direction. 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.”

Sadik’s video and performance practice lies halfway between fiction and documentary. Drawing on video games, anime, science fiction and French rap, the artist creates initiatory stories that centre characters striving to achieve moral and physical transformation. Her commission at Frieze London comprises an interactive playable game, conceived specifically for the new, fully electric BMW i5 in collaboration with BMW Gaming and Innovation Lab experts, as well as a video presented both on the exterior of KOKO and in the BMW Lounge. BMW i5 designers will support Sadik in the technical conception of the game and extending the gaming experience in the car through sound and light.

Titled LA POTION (EH), Sadik’s commission utilises computer-generated scenarios to investigate the changing emotional states of young male characters. Her world-building renders their emotions visible while investigating the construction and performance of masculinity, its ethical and moral codes, and what it reveals about societal structures more broadly.

Sadik succeeds Nikita Gale (2022), Madeline Hollander (2020-21), Camille Blatrix (2019), Sam Lewitt (2018) and Olivia Erlanger (2017) as the artist chosen for the BMW Open Work initiative.

BMW Open Work by Frieze
BMW Open Work by Frieze is an annual joint initiative that brings together art, technology and design in a pioneering multi-platform format. Each year since 2017, BMW Open Work by Frieze invites an artist to create a visionary project inspired by technology, engineering prowess and BMW Design that explores current and future technologies as a vehicle for innovation and artistic experimentation.

Further information can be found at https://www.frieze.com/bmw-open-work