Car installations - crashed or otherwise - seem to be this year's thing at international exhibitions. After the crashed cars in the sculpture exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery (see post below) comes a a car crash opera in the
Hungarian pavillion at the
Venice Biennale, using one crashed BMW and a video recording of two opera singers in the back of a taxi performing a
libretto that is, or sounds like, the transcript of a police interview.
An upcoming festival of time-based art the
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art also features
installations by artist Jesse Sugarman with cars rendered undriveable and transformed into sculptural installations, as well as a video projection by James Benning featuring
cars driving through concrete tunnels.
The theme of the summer could be "J.G. Ballard drives again". The soundtrack? A mix of multiple versions of "
Warm Leatherette".
