Automaker BMW likes Cornwall eco-art sculpture

CORNWALL — It’s all about efficiency and dynamics.

Driven by environmental concerns in Europe, automaker BMW is aiming to boost fuel-efficiency while maintaining performance. That means not just innovative engineering, but also carefully planned marketing.

And so Tim Prentice was Googled by BMW execs, and got an e-mail and phone call at his Cornwall studio. Would he let BMW use images of his sculpture, a New York City producer wanted to know?

Why not, was his initial reaction.

Then came a legal consultation with an attorney friend, who advised an “intellectual property� agreement be drawn up.

“Basically, I don’t want to be associated with any advertising, or be a part of it personally,� Prentice said. “Otherwise, they are welcome to use the images. I think it’s great, and of course, I’ll be paid.�

Prentice knew of BMW’s reputation for design priorities and support of the arts. He was not surprised to hear they plan to use his sculpture images in the lobby of a new building at their Munich headquarters.

“The way I understand it, it’s a huge domed space and these plasma screens will be on the walls and along the side of a staircase, showing images that are constantly in movement and that become part of the space.�

Well, he got that right, and it’s not surprising when one realizes that those same words describe his own work.

Julian Fischer, the producer for Gate.11 (one of three different production companies in Cornwall this week, as is needed when working on an international basis), confirmed that the visuals will be shown on a series of plasma screens, about 90 of them in the company’s new visitor center. It is located on a site that now includes the headquarters — shaped like four engine cylinders — and a round museum topped with a huge BMW logo.

“When BMW introduced its 5-series at the beginning of the year,� Fischer said, “they had ads with Dutch kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen with his wind-powered sculptures that walk the beach, almost like robots.�

What better example of energy efficiency and dynamic design than art that moves effortlessly with the slightest breeze?

“They decided to stick with that concept,� Fischer said, and that led them to Prentic.

Here’s the funny thing. BMW, whose “colors� are blue and white, has sort of adopted a blue sky and fluffy white clouds as a background for its marketing images, hoping it will make consumers think “clean.� So, in order to get the desired effect, the filmmakers are going the reality route. A field with a long view at the former Cream Hill Farm was chosen. The sculptures were suspended from a boom lift so they appear to be soaring freely against a backdrop of a large expanse of sky.

By late Monday morning, the crew was already hanging the second of three sculptures brought to the site, which is near Prentice’s home and studio. Gate.11 allotted three days to shoot, and being foreigners, didn’t care that Wednesday was a national holiday here. But the sky was perfect  Monday and the hilltop was breezy enough that fake, fan-produced gusts were unnecessary.

“We’ll shoot as many sculptures as we can,� Fischer said. “As long as the weather cooperates.�

The BMW visitor center in Munich is expected to open in October. Prentice’s sculptures will be seen in September by visitors at a trade show in Frankfurt. And of course, his work is often on display on the side of his barn here in Cornwall.

BMW is not Prentice’s first corporate client. He can list American Express, AT&T, Bank of America and more. He has installations in Japan, Korean, northern Ireland and Australia, as well as a sprawling piece that trails along the ceiling at Bradley International Airport in Hartford.

Prentice is a Yale-trained architect who founded his own firm in 1965. He has created his sculptures out of his Cornwall barn studio since 1975.

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