The interplay between artists and the automotive industry has thrown up some extremely exciting results in the past – just think of the legendary BMW Art Cars designed by Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg or the contemporary automotive artworks created by Sir Peter Blake for Bentley or Daniel Arsham for Porsche. Mercedes-AMG has also recently entered into an interesting partnership. The Munich-based artist and photographer Michael von Hassel, who was born in 1978, has focused his camera on the sports and racing cars from Affalterbach, creating fascinating, energetic and hyper-realistic compositions. Above all, the ‘light art’ he created during the Nürburgring 24 Hours of the Mercedes-AMG customer teams convey the adrenalin-laden atmosphere of modern motorsport like no other work of art. At the mere sight of the visually stunning images, you can smell the asphalt, tyre rubber and fuel and hear the roar of the engines.
Von Hassel has now broken the barriers of the photo format and designed two fascinating art cars for Mercedes-AMG. To this end, he projected elements of existing works of art onto the carbon-fibre bodies of two Mercedes-AMG GT3s. “The design of the art cars reflects the incredible power and dynamics of the vehicles themselves,” explains Von Hassel. “They capture all the energy that explodes on the track.” The two cars will be displayed for the first time from 14–17 November at the Macau round of the FIA GT World Cup. On 27 November, gallerist and curator Anke Degenhard invites you to a vernissage in Munich, where the latest works by Michael von Hassel will be presented. For more information, please visit the Crossover Art website.
Photos: Mercedes-AMG
