sara sadik turns BMW i5's AirConsole into a gaming portal

la potion eh by sara sadik: a bmw open work 2023 commission

Frieze and BMW continue their long-term partnership with the art initiative BMW Open Work for the seventh consecutive year, presenting a video and gaming experience by 28-year-old French artist Sara Sadik. Dubbed LA POTION (EH), the project continues Sadik’s interest in the possibilities of computer-generated scenarios and her investigation into the changing emotional states of young male characters. This time, the artist devised her sci-fi-inspired work to be played exclusively in the new, fully electric BMW i5 alongside a video installation presented both on the public-facing terrace of London’s famous KOKO music venue and inside the BMW Lounge during Frieze London 2023. ‘For my BMW Open Work 2023 commission I was interested in creating a work that could have transformational qualities for its viewers. I chose the title ‘LA POTION (EH)’ to hint at a tangible emotional metamorphosis,’ she shares.

fully electric BMW i5 M60 in front of KOKO in London | image courtesy BMW

exploring a young man’s emotional journey at frieze london

Curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, the BMW Open Work initiative invites an artist to develop an ambitious project utilizing BMW technology and design to pursue their practice in new directions. This year, invited Marseille-based artist Sara Sadik introduced a new dimension to the initiative. With a practice lying halfway between fiction and documentary, her work, be it video or performance, is inspired by video games, anime, science-fiction, as well as French rap, and puts forward characters facing challenges and striving to achieve moral and physical transformation through initiatory stories. While set against a fictional world, these stories are very much based on real-life experiences shared by people she works with, particularly young men and teenagers who struggle to express their deepest emotions. ‘These types of feelings (love, sadness, loneliness) that can make you feel weak sometimes are something they never talk about‘, she tells designboom during Frieze Art Week 2023. ‘So it was important for me to use my place as an artist to create a safe space for them.’

image © Tom Kahler

using BMW’s My Modes and AirConsole tech as a playing device

For LA POTION (EH), Sara Sadik created Neregy, a virtually alienated character who struggles to connect with people and that viewers can follow across different worlds, tasks, and challenges to complete his quest for psychological healing and transformation. Utilizing BMW’s My Modes — which allows the driver to set the car to their mood — and the new AirConsole technology of the BMW i5 model as a playing device, users find themselves immersed in Neregy’s world during Frieze London 2023. Ultimately, the artist has imagined the new BMW i5 as a character, a unique device that invites the public to delve into their emotions. Turning the car, for the first time in BMW Open Work history, into a special experiential device through the immersive activation of light and sound features and embracing the topics of human centricity and digitalization, the BMW i5 becomes a sentient being, a journey companion.

The BMW Open Work Lounge and LA POTION (EH) can be explored at KOKO by Frieze ticket holders and members of The House of KOKO on the following dates: Wednesday, October 11, 2023: 11am to 7pm and Thursday, October 12 – Sunday, October 15, 2023 from 10am – 7pm.

LA POTION (EH) by Sara Sadik, a gaming experience using BMW i5’s AirConsole tech | image © Calum Morrison