Audi’s centennial celebration is winding down, but the German brand isn’t quite ready to switch off the lights. There’s at least one more big model debut planned for its 100th anniversary, and in just over a week Audi will pull the sheets off the all-new 2011 Audi A8. Although the uber-sedan will take the stage at the LA Auto Show in two weeks, the world will get its first official look on the opposite coast at Design Miami.
Audi erected a special temporary art museum for the design show, providing a backdrop for the unveiling of the brand’s new flagship. According to Audi, the sedan will be surrounded by an exhibit from the Rubell Family collection called “Beg Borrow and Steal.” There will also be an installation called the “Light Light” made of LEDs and aluminum — a fitting tribute to the new A8’s aluminum structure and LED lighting.
The 100th anniversary year of the Audi brand is set to culminate with a very special occasion. November 30 sees the world premiere of the new Audi A8 – in the extraordinary setting of Miami. Here the brand’s new flagship will be presented in a truly innovative way in the Audi Pavilion, a temporary museum structure. It is to be the focal point of the vernissage “The Art of Progress,” which exhibits cultural and technological progress and echoes the values of the new A8: Vorsprung durch Technik and design expertise that stirs the emotions.
Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, commented on the exhibition concept: “Our claim “Vorsprung durch Technik” also embraces design, which is one of the outstanding elements of the Audi signature. And as top design has now emerged as an acknowledged art form, we see the bridge between art and architecture as a logical step in advancing our brand.”
Miami has long since emerged as the worldwide capital of art and design. With the two high-profile fairs Design Miami and Art Basel Miami Beach, early December is traditionally the highpoint of the season for all art and design aficionados. On the eve of Design Miami the world premiere of the new Audi A8 will be held in this very beautiful setting.
Audi is celebrating the world premiere in unconventional style with a vernissage, which symbolizes the cultural and technological progress embodied in the Audi A8 with its history, its engineering and its emotion-packed design.
Inspired by the guiding principle “The Art of Progress,” the Audi flagship is due to be unveiled in the Audi Pavilion amidst selected art works from the new exhibition “Beg Borrow and Steal,” which belongs to the Rubell Family Collection, one of the world’s most important art collections, and the installation “The Light Light” – consisting of aluminum and LED light – by the British top designer Tom Dixon.
These three areas are linked thematically in the Audi Pavilion. They have in common an innovative and progressive nature and the courage to create new things, and are thus elegantly interlinked with each other in the exhibition. The Audi pavilion also features the latest in wireless communications technology from Sling Broadband; featuring Wimax 4G Technology.
“Artists, designers and engineers have one passion in common, which becomes evident in the “The Art of Progress” vernissage,” emphasizes Stefan Sielaff, Head of Design at AUDI AG: “And that is the handling of form, function, color and material. To what extent the result is art is decided by the claim behind it, but also by the observer.”
Through December 5 the vernissage in the Audi Pavilion is a satellite of Design Miami and Art Basel Miami Beach, and is open daily to visitors from all over the world to Design Miami and Art Basel.
Furthermore, this year Audi is acting as a designer among designers at Design Miami, where it will also be possible to see the new Audi A8. In the Audi Lounge, the brand’s flagship will be presented as a world premiere in an innovative setting to visitors to Art Basel Miami Beach and Design Miami. This year Audi is the exclusive automotive sponsor both of Design Miami and of Art Basel Miami Beach.