I never really took myself for a car enthousiast but when I heard that the BMW Art Car Collection 1975-2010 was going to be on display in a Shoreditch car park I have to admit that I was curious… It seems that big tuned cars are coming back into trend this year. Ryan Gosling probably has something to do with it…

The idea was simple: Bringing together a collection of BMW cars transformed by 16 of the world’s leading international artists including Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons and put them on display in a gigantic car park for people to come and enjoy. The space was pretty interesting and a bit odd: You would enter an industrial elevator that took you to the upper car park level.

The exhibition graphics, which were designed by the very talented guys at Julia were covering the elevator’s walls, presenting the collection artists involved chronologically. I was excited.

The exhibition set was actually what struck me the most as soon as we left the elevator to explore the top level car park. The project team managed to retain that industrial feel by using only environmentally friendly materials and techniques and made the set pretty special. Loved those graphic strips going around each level.

The cars themselves were pretty mad and colourful but they didn’t turn me into a car aficionado just yet. Some of the details were fun and colourful and the overall feel was pretty striking.

There was one car I couldn’t take my eyes off though: César Manrique’s BMW for the collection. It was a bit like seeing what my work could look on a sport’s car ; ) Loved the colours and shapes.

For those of you girls who love cars, you can have an online tour of the entire BMW Art Car Collection here : http://www.bmw-artcartour.com/
Malika x