How do you position a brand like BMW through cultural outreach – the kind of cultural engagement that you are known for?

Time is of essence here. We have been partnering with arts and culture for more than 50 years with hundreds of cultural engagements worldwide. Whatever it is that we do, it is for the visibility, the image and the reputation of the BMW Group and its brands. That said, we wish to engage in meaningful, long-term partnerships. We are leaders in the field and by example we would love to entice more companies to do the same so that the arts may thrive!

Why is it so important for a global brand like BMW to have this kind of artistic and cultural engagement – as you do for India Art Fair and Art Basel?

No law in any country asks companies to spend budget on culture. We do it because we think it is a match for our cultured brand. As for the art fairs, they are at the commercial end of the spectrum, biennials are maybe on the other side. Which is why in India, we are also partnering with the Kochi-Muziris Bienniale since its inception in 2012. Two things come into play here. Brand building for customers and clients on the one hand, corporate citizenship on the other. We want to return something as a company within the countries we do successful business in.

I heard on a podcast something very interesting – that for a company, there is actually no real need to do anything to engage culturally with the country it’s in – yet BMW does it – so the key question is why?

Because we can and because we want to. We believe in the amazing things human beings can achieve together on this planet if we mean well and if we listen to and appreciate one another. We can and we should help create the platforms where this dialogue is possible. Not just talking the talk but walking the walk.

Surely, the reason goes beyond the monetary?

Corporate Social Responsibility is what sets us apart and what defines us just as much as our core business. While much is certainly geared towards our customers, it is society as a whole that gives us the license to operate. It is here where we wish to engage in meaningful work.

How do you engage the brand, as well as your customers, such as what you did at the last Art Fair in Delhi, especially over a decade of IAF?

The past Indian Art Fair featured several collaborations. Besides our collaboration with the artist Afrah Shafiq, we had a lounge in which we featured the BMW Concept Speedtop that embodied BMW’s seamless fusion of art, design, and innovation, presenting a bold vision of craftsmanship and performance. A collaboration with Italian leather specialist Schedoni added bespoke luggage and behind seat storage, underscoring the concept’s exclusivity.

With engaging in the arts both with our brand and meaningful collaborations we enter the world where many of our customers and clients thrive. It is a great platform both for loyalty and conquest, providing clients with great content and creating experiences for potentially new ones. Above all, it is the art that matters.

Commissioning top international artists for the BMW Art Car – which has always been a huge hit at the India Art Fair – how did you approach the artists or do they find you?

It is an international jury of major museum directors that chooses the BMW Art Car artist. All we do is provide the car model. We do not have a say in the jury. We believe in a transparent process, curatorial integrity, and, above all, creative freedom!

Which is the greatest/most famous artist/ or any artist who left a mark on you, whom you’ve ever worked with at BMW?

I learned a lot from Zaha Hadid. I cherished hugging John Baldessari. Jeff Koons taught me many things of how to navigate through and appreciate life. I miss laughing and flirting with the great curator Koyo Kouoh. Esther Mahlangu continues to inspire me deeply. With Julie Mehretu I compare notes from contemporary literature to Japanese ukiyo-e woodprints. Only in December last year, in Senegal, it was awe-inspiring  to see how the truly great director Mati Diop led a workshop of young filmmakers as part of AFMAC, the African Film and media arts initiative which BMW launched together with Mehretu and Mehret Mandefro as part of the Art Car Project is the greatest privilege of my job to engage with amazing artists in a deep and meaningful way across years and decades. And I haven’t even started to speak of musicians, designers, and writers.

I’m always curious – what happens to the BMW Art Car (like the one by Jeff Koons in 2010) – how long does it take for the limited editions to sell completely?

The BMW Art Cars are different from artist editions which we also engage in. They are unique, most of them took part in a race, and their home is the BMW Museum. Warhol took 28 minutes to paint his M1 in 1979, Olafur Elíasson set aside time for three years of research before turning a hydrogen-powered BMW into an artwork. There is no time limit unless a race is around the corner. As for Jeff Koons' 8 Series Gran Coupé, the limited edition of 99 cars was sold out worldwide two weeks after the initial announcement.

Your art cars have raced Le Mans – and you have had Andy Warhol – such huge names – is it because the big names draw the crowds and the customers?

Seven BMW Art Cars raced at Le Mans, from Alexander Calder's very first one, his BMW CSL 3.0 in 1975 to the latest BMW Art Car, the twentieth, a BMW M Hybrid VB created by Julie Mehretu.  The Art Cars were not meant to be a series at the beginning, but Calder’s car was such a success that we continued to have artists create them. While we do a lot for emerging artists with other international initiatives, the art cars are indeed for more established ones. Yes, their names draw a bigger crowd but it is the art that matters, not their fame.

Do you think you will bring big projects like the BMW Open Work by Frieze – something similar to that – to India – is ‘The Future is Born of Art’ something like that as it engages an Indian artist with BMW’s design and technology?

Absolutely. This year, Afrah Shafiq showcased ‘A Giant Sampler’ across the India Art Fair façade which was amazing to behold. BMW Group India’s decade-long partnership with India Art Fair reflects our unwavering belief that culture, creativity, and innovation are inseparable pillars of progress. Through ‘The Future is Born of Art’ Commission and our presence at this vibrant platform, we celebrate the power of artistic expression to shape a sustainable and inclusive future. This past year's commission was titled "Crafting in Continuum" which is both true of what we do and what India's amazing and multifaceted art scene stands for.

At the end of the day, does this artist get a prize, and how does this association help his career?

It is not so much about the event, the prize, the one-time moment in the sun. It is about the long-term, about the network, about the visibility which does not so much promote the artist but gives visibility to the work and the questions it may pose. A solid career is not achieved through brief exposure, what we can offer is one stepping stone on that path which has more to do with your solitary struggles in the studio than your face in front of the cameras.

You patronize art museums and even large-scale musical events – I just want to ask you what is the real intersection between a mega-company like BMW and art itself, where do these two things – one a technology and industrial giant – and the other a soft power – what is the meeting point?

The meeting point is achievement. The intersection is beauty. The common ground is absolute creative freedom. In pre-Socratic times, there was but one word for great artworks and great advances in engineering: techné. In ancient Greece, the Agora is where creative dialogue took place, in India it is the Mandapa. Humans can create amazing things together. If they put their heads together instead of bashing them in.

I want to ask you a macro question – how do you see the contemporary art world in India – since you have been coming here, in Delhi and Kochi, for so many years – how do you see its growth?

I wish for India to remain open and multifaceted. In Europe, the fine arts were long ago separated from arts and crafts. Which is a huge mistake! In India, the strength of both as joint force is in part what makes its art so unique. I see more and more Indian artists being paid attention to on global scale. So much more needs to be done in India regarding the arts, of course, as the infrastructure is only beginning to grow and is nowhere near where it should be in a nation of 1.4 billion people. The contemporary art world plays an important role in defining and shaping society as it speaks of the creative achievements it is capable of as a whole. So why not nurture, why not support it much more than is currently the case.

How, in your expert view, can more and more modern Indian artists be on every global collector’s list?

More public museums in India, more corporate support for artists and institutions, more arts education and academies, a better cultural infrastructure, more exchange programs connecting creative India to the world. It is not a question of quality but of visibility. Acknowledge the multi-faceted wonders that make India's art and culture so rich and amazing. Art always goes beyond the boundaries of the nation-state and its roots are always manifold. The beauty is in the multitudinous narratives, it is with the individuals, not with the monolithic story nations sometimes tell themselves.

As the future of automobiles evolves, what is the future of art, in an age of AI?

AI is a tool and a material at best. Creativity is for humans. While for the past two hundred years industrialization and technology saved us from the work we did not want to engage in, from hard labor to weaving, AI now comes after the things we love to do. Let's keep in check!

What, as a wish, would you like to see more of, in terms of BMW’s cultural outreach, or anything new you would like to add?

As important as art fairs and as much as we engage in them, I firmly believe in cultural institutions not solely evolving around business models and prizes. It is here where the viewer or listener gets to engage with art or music in a most meaningful way. We have been partnering with museums such as Guggenheim to the Tate Modern or Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie as well as with opera houses around the world. I would love to see more of that happen!