NEW YORK, NY.- “I wondered how I could make the Art Car a symbol and vocal archive for the immense artistic creativity of the African continent,” says Julie Mehretu, describing her ambition for designing the 20th BMW Art Car of the iconic collection. The American abstract painter, born in Ethiopia in 1970, first presented her artistically designed BMW M Hybrid V8 to the public at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in May 2024. After its race deployment in Le Mans a month later, this year marks the next chapter of the project in cooperation with the BMW Group: the African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC). For the first time in the 50-year history of the BMW Art Car Collection, the artistic collaboration goes beyond the car as merely an object.
The idea for the pan-African artist network was developed by Julie Mehretu together with her longtime friend, Mehret Mandefro, an Emmy-nominated film producer—also born in Ethiopia and living in the USA—and co-founder of the Realness Institute for the training of African filmmakers. Under the guidance of a group of African and international artists, workshops will be held in Lagos, Dakar, Tangier, Nairobi, and Cape Town for around 50 artists. AFMAC will connect with local host cultural institutions on site and workshop participants will be selected through open calls with the partners. The kickoff will take place from April 15–19 in Lagos with the cultural non-profit organization “Angels & Muse”.
Each workshop results in a new film production. Once completed, the films will form an anthology of contemporary African filmmaking, which will complement exhibitions of Mehretu’s 20th BMW Art Car. In 2026, the anthology will debut in a major exhibition dedicated to AFMAC along with the 20th Art Car at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town. The curator will be its Executive Director Koyo Kouoh, the designated curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale. BMW has partnered with the museum for many years, bringing its extensive network of cultural creators and non-profit institutions in Africa to sustainably establish AFMAC.
Social engagement and engaging with peers in collectives have always shaped Mehretu’s work. In 2004, she founded the artist residency Denniston Hill in North New York with artist Paul Pfeiffer and architectural historian Lawrence Chua. Meant as a place for exchange, reflection, and retreat, artists of various disciplines and backgrounds further develop their practice there. Workshop methods conceived at Denniston Hill form the foundation for AFMAC’s workshops, where artists from various African countries and the global diaspora come together to engage with questions of cultural, political, and historical identity. The forms of experimentation that a translocal collective enables, how cultural and political heritage can be negotiated, and the role different media play in the attribution of identity forms is examined.
Using archival material of African film and media works, participants are given the opportunity to develop their own creative approaches and create new forms of media art. Accordingly, a key component of the workshops is the screening of hard-to-access African films to expand historical and cultural perspectives. The goal is to create sustainable infrastructures that last beyond the workshops and strengthen the artistic community in Africa. A central point of approach is the provision of an online film archive that African artists can continuously work with in the future.
Artist talks and public presentations of AFMAC will also take place outside of Africa in 2025 and 2026. An event calendar and further detailed information, including photo and film material, are available at afmac.institute.
Lead artists AFMAC: Jim Chuchu (Kenya), Robin Coste Lewis (USA), Mati Diop (France/Senegal), Coco Fusco (USA), Wanuri Kahiu (Kenya), Zeresenay Berhane Mehari (Ethiopia), The Otolith Group (United Kingdom).
