GENEVA.- The House of Rolls-Royce is presenting a new work by artist Tomás Saraceno at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show, between 7-17 March, 2019. The artwork sees the artist create a new work with a spider. Appearing as a floating galaxy, this artwork, woven by social and semi-social spiders, provides an encounter between shifting scales and phenomena. From the cosmic web to the minute dust particles collecting on the silken threads, the artwork shows that we co-exist on multiple levels with non-human beings. Following the show, the artwork will reside permanently at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex, from 28 March, 2019.
The Rolls-Royce Art Programme has supported a number of high profile artists in recent years, including Isaac Julien, Asad Raza, Dan Holdsworth and Yang Fudong. The world of art is one that the marque shares a clear affinity with; a commitment to creative expression, an exploration of technical and conceptual boundaries, and a willingness to take time in the search for quality and meaning.
The Saraceno artwork pertains to the artist’s ‘Hybrid web’ series, formed of complex interwoven networks suspended in the air. The Hybrid webs’ unique architectures originate from interspecific encounters between unrelated solitary, social and semi-social spider species. As different spiders from different species weave in the same space, they bridge the architectures of each other’s webs. Each one of these tells a story of hybrid relationships, entangling not only different arachnid webbed ecosystems, but also humans and the wider atmosphere. In this series, floating galaxies made of different silk and web types collide, challenging gravity and fostering the emergence of new kinds of vibrational environments. There, sensory worlds and lines of communication merge and connect, the web being considered an extension of the spider’s sensorial and cognitive systems.
The artwork, entitled ‘Hybrid Dark solitary semi-social Cluster BD–15 3966 built by: a duet of Nephila edulis - six weeks, a quintet of Cyrtophora citricola -eight weeks, rotated 180°;’ furthers the marque’s recent collaboration with the artist, which saw the Rolls-Royce Art programme act as benefactor for the artist’s recent solo exhibition, On Air, at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in 2018.
Tomás Saraceno’s oeuvre could be seen as an ongoing research, informed by the worlds of art, architecture, natural sciences, astrophysics and engineering; his floating sculptures, community projects and interactive installations propose and explore new, sustainable ways of inhabiting and sensing the environment. In 2009, Saraceno attended the International Space Studies Program at NASA Ames. That same year he presented a major installation at the 53rd Venice Biennale, and was later awarded the prestigious Calder Prize. He has held residencies at Centre National d’Études Spatiales (2014–2015), MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (2012–ongoing) and Atelier Calder (2010), among others. His work has been widely exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions, and is included in the collections of MoMA, New York; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin; among others. Saraceno lives and works in and beyond the planet Earth.
