Please Touch!
Design Challenge: To create a sculpture symbolizing the Art of Car Design – to be understood both for its sensuality and symbol of purpose.
Design Solution: Two blocks of marble, weighing a total of 25 tons, were quarried at Carrera, Italy, and transported to Leipzig, Germany for rough milling. With the assistance of CAS our designers crafted one of the biggest marble reliefs of modern times.
We chose marble because of the way it denotes a venerable sculptural tradition in art and because, when you come face to face with it, it wants to be heard and touched. It seduces, as a car seduces.
Hovering over the marble relief we created a free-formed surface approximately 120 square meters to represent the "heavenly" aspirations of the perfection of form. Genuine BMW car parts of different models are suspended behind the bent-up free-formed surface and can be seen only from the sides. The final element, the "perfect curve" is an icon placed at the center. The surface becomes taut towards the top and arched, as if receiving energy from a rational world that extends beyond palpable matter and points into the future.
The whole sculpture, measuring 14 meters wide and 10 meter high, impresses the viewer with its huge surfaces and lavishly shaped forms. The tension between materials and the freely hovering curvature of the free-formed surface convey a sense of space and shape at once overwhelming and inspiring. It asks questions and leaves questions open. It represents the essence of the crafted magnificence and aesthetic passion of car design.
