LONDON.- Tomás Saraceno is the latest in a host of eminent artists to join the Rolls-Royce Art Programme. The relationship between Rolls-Royce and Saraceno will adopt a double-aspect approach, with the marque becoming benefactor in part for his forthcoming ‘On Air’ show, which runs at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, from 17th October, 2018 until 6th January, 2019. In return, Saraceno will create a new work for the Rolls-Royce Art Programme, furthering the existing ‘spider vitrine’ series of his installation, ‘Particular Matter(s) Jam Session’, supported by Rolls-Royce, at Palais de Tokyo. The installation will be exhibited at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex, in February, 2019.

The Rolls-Royce Art Programme invites leading artists to develop new works which push the boundaries of what is possible both technically and conceptually. Artists are given the time, freedom and resource to create a unique creative statement.

Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, commented, “The Rolls-Royce Art Programme adopts the form of contemporary patronage, enabling artists to bring new work to fruition. It gives us great pleasure to support Tomás Saraceno’s ‘Particular Matter(s) Jam Session’ installation at Palais de Tokyo, this autumn. Furthermore, we look forward to welcoming his new work, created for the marque, to the Home of Rolls-Royce, in February next year.”

Saraceno has researched and experimented with spider web hybrids and interspecies communication in his recent work, exploring how we look at spiders, and how, by paying renewed attention to them, we might discover new threads of connectivity within our environment. The web serves as a canvas from which to illustrate the ever-changing eco-system in the atmosphere around us. Accumulating transitory particles, observing the effects of vibrations, in this case caused by the amplification of the sound of the spiders spinning their webs, and the impact of a human’s interaction with the surrounding air, all use the web as a stage from which to play their part.

‘ON AIR’ is the artist’s largest project to date. The exhibition is the fourth ‘Carte Blanche’ installation hosted by Palais de Tokyo, where an artist is invited to take over the 13,000m2 museum in its entirety. Saraceno brings a selection of his major works together with ambitious new productions that will transform Palais de Tokyo into a unique sensory experience. ‘ON AIR’ reveals what resists our sight; it aims to make tangible both physically and virtually the myriad of presences floating in the air and the way they affect us. From particulate matter to cosmic dust and from radio frequencies to sonic pollution, his work will expose atmospheric entanglement on the smallest and largest scales. The artwork supported by the Rolls-Royce Art Programme, ‘Particular Matter(s) Jam Session,’ furthers the links built by the artist between dust articles, spider webs and atmosphere.

Tomás Saraceno, artist, commented, “If we can feel sound, can we also see it? Can we hear what can’t be seen? The idea behind the exhibition is that of jamming, playing together in an ecosystem in becoming, always contingent and evolving, across multiple rhythms and trajectories… amplifying the unheard voices and turning down the volume of those that are usually loudest, re-assembling as an ensemble of universes. That’s what I intended to do with ‘Particular Matter(s) Jam Session’, and I am very grateful to Rolls-Royce for their support, which allowed us to develop new techniques for this very special installation.”

Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, Curator, Palais de Tokyo, goes on to say, “With Tomás Saraceno, the air becomes the extended field of sculpture. Particular Matter(s) Jam Session, the realisation of which was made possible thanks to the support of Rolls-Royce, is a work that plunges us into the beauty and complexity of an invisible ballet, the one of the cosmic and terrestrial dust that surrounds us. We are immersed in the permanently moving choreography that plays out in the universe, between our presences, this matter, our breaths, time, rhythms. ‘Particular Matter(s) Jam Session’ shows us with great poetry how the world goes through us as much as we go through it.’’