A new work of art every day - The publication "Visionaire" and smart celebrate the era of electricity
• Communications bridge between smart and the popular magazine
• Urban creativity and environmental technology
Avant-garde meets avant-garde. The 57th issue of the legendary New York fashion and art publication Visionaire focuses on the unique two-seater
smart fortwo. "Visionaire 2010" is the first electric issue of the publication. 52 internationally renowned curators and collectors were recruited and selected 365 works of art for this issue. In the form of an electrically operated calendar "Visionaire 2010" is a forward-looking compendium of contemporary art. The cooperation with Visionaire was motivated by the launch of the second generation smart fortwo electric drive.
Visionaire was founded in 1991 in New York as a forum for creative exchange. Each issue is devoted to a certain topic and is individually designed. This means that the format of the internationally respected publication changes with each issue. "The New Yorker" sees Visionaire as "a creative playing field for leading designers, artists, photographers and thinkers and "W Magazine" calls it "the couture version of a magazine".
Marc Langenbrinck, Head of Brand Management, Sales & Marketing at smart says "Contemporary works of art meet with forward-looking technology – this is what unites smart and "Visionaire". The first electric issue of the magazine underlines the leading role of the car brand on the way to environmentally friendly, sustainable concepts for individual mobility of the future. The project forms part of smart's activities in the field of urban creativity and sustainability and its "plug-in" operation complements the market launch of the second generation smart fortwo electric drive."
The 52 guest curators of Visionaire "2010" include artists such as John Baldessari, internationally renowned museum curators such as Klaus Biesenbach (MoMA) or Christine Marcel (Centre George Pompidou), collectors of contemporary art like Pharrell Williams, Mario Testino, architect Zaha Hadid and actors Natalie Portman and Tilda Swinton. Fashion designers Raf Simons and Marc Jacobs and Dr. Renate Wiehager, Head of the Daimler art collection, are also among the curators.
Each of these curators selected seven artists. The artists include Adel Abdessemed, Agathe Snow, Bruce Nauman, Cao Fei, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Gabriel Orozco, Gelitin, Guyton\Walker, Kalup Linzy, Kaws, Maurizio Cattelan, Nathalie Djurberg, Olafur Eliasson, Paul Chan and Steve McQueen. In this way the "Visionaire" issue "2010" forms a compendium of contemporary art.
At the same time as the publication of the avant-garde magazine, smart is launching the second generation fortwo electric drive with a lithium-ion battery. The electric smart concept celebrated its world premiere in 2006. Since 2007 the smart fortwo electric drive with a sodium-nickel-chloride battery has been in operation on the roads in a first pilot phase – for example in London where 100 vehicles are being tested in everyday use. From the end of this year the smart electric drive will be produced with a lithium-ion battery. Lithium-ion technology has decisive advantages over other types of batteries including better performance, shorter charging times, a long life and high reliability. From 2010 smart will therefore bring the first plausible solution for motoring without any local emissions to selected cities.
The issue "2010" which is published worldwide is a communications bridge between smart electric drive and the first electric issue of Visionaire. At the same time it unites the design expertise of both brands. Following the tradition of the multi-format publication, the unusual calendar will be produced in a limited edition of 4000 copies. It will be published in October. smart showed
first impressions of the calendar at the St. Moritz Art Masters in August 2009. The issue will be distributed via design bookshops, museum shops, fashion and lifestyle boutiques. "2010" can also be ordered directly from Visionaire (www.visionaireworld.com). The price is USD 295. Earlier issues of Visionaire are long since being traded as collector's items.