Audemars Piguet at Art Basel Miami 2018

PRESS RELEASE: 2 November, 2018

With a commitment to crafts, creativity and innovation, Audemars Piguet became an official Associate Partner for Art Basel in 2013. Ever since, AP has supported the world’s premier contemporary art shows in Hong Kong, Basel and Miami Beach. At the upcoming show in Miami (6-9 December 2018) the Manufacture presents its lounge and art concepts.
 

The contemporary art scene grows bigger and more international each year. Many big art fairs offer a growing section of modern and contemporary art, and there are entire shows dedicated to this period. Certain exhibitions are proud to remain exclusive by having an “intentionally low number” of participants, others line up a broad variety of galleries.

One of the largest shows with a focus on contemporary art is still Art Basel. A few calls it the “granddaddy of art fairs”, created by Basel gallerists Ernst Beyeler, Trudl Bruckner and Balz Hilt. The original Basel fair, established in 1970, has a Miami (since 2002) and Hong Kong (2013) version too. It has attracted prestigious art supporting partners throughout the years, including the Swiss investment bank and financial services company UBS (the lead partner of the Art Basel in since 1994), BMW with the BMW Art Journey (a new global art initiative by BMW and Art Basel) or Audemars Piguet (global Associate Partner of Art Basel since 2013).

Over the years, Audemars Piguet has presented not only interesting artistic projects (like the Theo Jansen’s StrandBeest kinetic sculpture project) but also innovative lounge concepts in the Collectors’ Lounge at the three Art Basel shows, inviting designers and artists to creatively interpret its heritage and origins.

Art Lounge – Art Basel Collector’s Lounge

In 2018, Audemars Piguet has collaborated with two artists in designing the lounge for the Art Basel shows, Sebastian Errazuriz and Quayola.

Sebastian Errazuriz (1977) is Chilean born, New York based artist and designer, raised in London. He took art classes in Washington DC, film courses in Edinburgh, and obtained a design degree in Santiago. He later received his Master’s in Fine Arts from New York University. He explains his approach: “I seek those ideas that hopefully always existed—ideas that feel natural and obvious to all of us because this alternative was always there but maybe no one had seen it before.” (source). He designs public art installations, furniture and everyday objects (see more here).

Errazuriz designed AP’s lounges in 2016, 2017 and now in 2018. He calls the concept of the most recent work ‘Foundations’, inspired by the iron ore and foundries in reference to the Manufacture’s home in the Vallée de Joux. His large-scale installation suspends hundreds of pieces of 3D-printed, scanned and hand-moulded rocks from the Vallée, rotating and moving in perfect harmony.

 

Quayola (born in 1982, Rome) is a visual artist based in London. His work includes photography, geometry, digital sculptures and immersive audiovisual installations and performances. His first collab with Audemars Piguet dates back to 2012 celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Royal Oak. Now he created audiovisual works for the Audemars Piguet Collectors’ Lounge at Art Basel, which transport the viewers to the Vallée de Joux, home of the brand in the Swiss Jura Mountains. Titled Promenade and Remains: Vallée de Joux his video diptychs and photographic series give a modern audiovisual impression of the landscapes.

The works use extensive data captured through drone technology and high-precision scanning. Quayola’s innovative aesthetics go beyond human senses, incorporating the traditions of landscape painting while mirroring watchmakers’ precision and craftsmanship.

Both gentlemen talk about their inspiration behind the project here and here.

Art Project

Tomás Saraceno (1973, Argentina) is a multidisciplinary artist; “his floating sculptures, community projects and interactive installations propose and explore new, sustainable ways of inhabiting and sensing the environment”. He is leading a non-for-profit organisation, Aerocene Foundation – devoted to community building, scientific research, artistic experience, and education.

The artists showcases the Albedo project with Audemars Piguet. This large-scale temporal pavilion is comprised of approximately 40 reflective out- turned umbrellas that create a large hemispherical sundial on the Miami Beach oceanfront. Seen from above, these Albedo structures form an impressive geometric constellation, and transform umbrella’s usual shielding purpose into a community act protecting the thermodynamic balance of the Earth. The solar energy they produce by redirecting heat away from the Earth’s surface is used to y Aerocene’s iconic aerosolar sculpture. The floating sculpture imagines a new infrastructure that demonstrates the possibilities of an ethical, fossil-fuel-free movement in the atmosphere, while challenging and redefining a global right to mobility.

 

Source: press release.
Photo credit: Audemars Piguet.
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