"Momentous” a multi-media, audio-visual and interactive exhibition that invited visitors to engage with the exhibition by uploading images of their own to be projected onto the mobile structures. The multi-facetted and culturally equivocal Exhibition brought Western experience of life in a dialog with Eastern philosophy, presented to Chinese audiences.
2. INTRODUCTION
Hannes Schmid presented “Momentous” at the Today Art Museum in Beijing between June 22 and July 17 2014.
“Momentous” a multi-media, audiovisual and interactive exhibition that invited visitors to engage with the exhibition by
uploading images of their own to be projected onto the mobile structures. The multi-facetted and culturally equivocal
exhibition that brought Western experience of life in a dialog with Eastern philosophy, presented to Chinese audiences, for
the first time, the artist’s work series about Formula 1, devised between 2001 and 2006 and further developed between
2012 and 2013 into a multimedia installation.
HannesSchmid|Momemtous|Finalreport|2014
TABLE OF CONTENTIntroduction 1
Introduction1
About “Momentous” 2
Exhibition Concept 4
Publication 6
Exhibition 12
About the Mobiles 42
Interactivity 44
Facts Figures Momentous 46
Media coverage 52
Media Coverage Index 60
Today Art Museum 64
Hannes Schmid 66
Acknowledgment 68
1
3. ABOUT “MOMENTOUS”
“Momentous” is to be understood programmatically insofar as it would like to initiate a dialog between Western and
Eastern cultures and worlds of thought. In the English language, “Momentous” refers to something of great signifi-
cance, also with regards to the future, hence to something with far-reaching consequences. In the Chinese language,
the term coming closest to the intended meaning is 至关重要, which is used to refer to something “of great signif-
icance,” but also 永恒的瞬间, standing for the moment of eternity or moments of eternity.
The English word ‘“Momentous”,’ first seen in the seventeenth century, is etymologically rooted in the term ‘moment’
and is therefore strongly associated with the Western conception of an instant in time. The ‘moment’ in this context
constitutes one of the key terms of Western modernity and, moreover, of the world of Formula 1 races and its cult
and ritual of velocity. The moment, standing for the present, brings Western experience of life in dialog with Eastern
philosophy: in a Chinese understanding merely the present, but not the future, is relevant. Furthermore, as a decisive
factor in the act of releasing the shutter, the ‘moment’ is likewise crucial to the technology at the heart of photography
as an art form to the extent that it influences what will eventually constitute the perfectly condensed, authentic image.
This image needs to be understood as the quintessence of all of which had existed prior to its formation, of what had
been and will never be again. In the high-tech context of Formula 1, this moment might correspond to the fraction of
a second deciding the race, investing it with significance and rendering it “Momentous”.
2 3
4. EXHIBITION CONCEPT
The general set-up of the show, unfolding across three rooms, is modeled on one of the main rhetorical concepts of
Western Antiquity, dialectics,Thesis – Antithesis – Synthesis, which follows the principle of binary opposites leading to
unification. While such an understanding is alien to Eastern thinking and philosophy, the second and, particularly, the
third and concluding exhibition room offer an artistic reconciliation and merging of Western and Eastern approaches.
In the first room, dedicated to the Thesis, a selection of large photographs of the Formula 1 drivers on the BAR-Honda
team introduces visitors to the cult of the world of brands, in which the stars and models of velocity and an aestheti-
cized lifestyle are presented as an integral part of their globalized and economized surroundings or are subtracted from
these and transformed into contextless icons.This first room is bracketed by a video projection featuring excerpts from
the art project Short Stories and the video and photography installation in six parts, Moment of a Moment.Arranged in
three pairs of identical works, these projections form a triptych, a format which constitutes a Western pathos formula
with strong sacral connotations. Here it is fused with the powerful close-up of Jenson Button’s face whereby the work
becomes a veritable cult image of Formula 1 which might even be understood as a Vera Icon, the holy face of Christ.
Passing the portraits of the above mentioned heroes of motor racing, visitors reach the second room, the Antithesis.
This room is filled with a selection of landscape photographs originating from the envisioned speed record on Utah’s
Salt Flats. Whereas the Thesis portion of the exhibition, featuring a highly technologized and commercialized area
embodied by the exemplarily aestheticized individuals is devoted to a global, ephemeral attention economy, the Antith-
esis room juxtaposes all of this with the omnipotence, vastness, and eternity of an authentic and untamed nature.
The conditions and the unpredictability governing this natural setting eventually led to the failure of the speed record
because rainfall rendered the terrain even more difficult to navigate than it already is under perfect conditions. Cap-
tured in color or black-and-white, the landscape photographs show an autarkic nature in whose background the For-
mula 1 car, at least in some pictures, threatens to disappear. Especially in the black-and-white photographs the images
turn into sublime landscape studies bordering on abstraction. As such, these images share an aesthetic inherent to
the significant Chinese genre of Shanshui, the art and philosophy of Chinese landscape painting.
The implied interweaving of Western and Eastern approaches to art and thinking serves as a transition to the third
and largest exhibition room, the Synthesis, where five monumental mobile sculptures, each made up of four individ-
ual parts, are suspended from the ceiling. Two projectors equipped with digitalized photographs and moving images
extracted from Hannes Schmid’s works about Formula 1 are directed at the mobile structures, as a result of which
the images overflow the spatial limits of the room and merge with each other, occasionally superimposing one anoth-
er—a multifaceted situation which encompasses the spectator present in the room. For their part, the mobile struc-
tures take up the concept of the “bull’s eye” Lucky Strike logo designed by Raymond Loewy. Due to their constant
and precisely calculated movement, the projected images never return to their initial position. Hence viewing them is
an action uniquely related to the present moment; the images become visualizations of the present per se, reflecting
an understanding of the present eminently crucial to Chinese thinking.
4 5
5. PUBLICATION
The presented book featured the multimedia work series about Formula 1 by Hannes Schmid at the Today Art Museum
in Beijing.
This publication, for the first time explicitly addressing an Asian audience, appeared in two languages—Chinese and
English. It is organized in two parts. The first contains Kornelia Imesch’s introduction and three essays by Julien Gou-
maz, Franz Liebl, and Hanna Hölling, each of which analyzes the exhibited conceptual work series from different angles,
addressing associated questions.
The second offers anecdotal insight into the vast oeuvre of Hannes Schmid, in the form of Zhao Lei’s intriguing personal
report about the artist’s person and life.Subsequently,Kornelia Imesch provides a concise discussion of Hannes Schmid’s
oeuvre, thus introducing the concluding selection of photographs taken from work series either conceptually or themat-
ically related to the pieces displayed in the Formula 1 exhibit.
Pages 576
Pictures 260
Print run 2’500
6 7
23. ABOUT THE MOBILES
The exhibition consists of five mobiles, each with four rotating circular segments.
All four circular segments rotate at different speeds.
Each mobile is illuminated by moving images from two projectors with a luminous intensity of 10,000 ANSI lumens.
The images are output through a player connected via a network. This ensures synchronous playback of the films.
The entire room will be equipped with a surround sound system and Wi-Fi.
It will be possible for visitors to project their pictures onto the mobiles via smartphones and/or tablets PCs.
See also: http://vimeo.com/37801922
14.HS.PEKING.v2014.vwx 3.6.13
Architekturbüro für Ereignisse
LÜSCHER HIRSCHMÜLLER
DATEINAME:
PLANINHALTKUNDE
PLAN NR
ERSTELLT BEARBEITETDATUM REVIDIERT PLANGRÖSSE MASSSTAB
GR00-100.A4
1:100
ANSICHT
A3
HANNES SCHMID
SEITE
1
DAT GEPR.
LOCATION
TODAY ART MUSEUM BEIJING
EXHIBITION 2014
PROJEKT NR
Zürich, Hardturmstrasse 76, 8006 Zürich
Tel. : +41 44 450 43 30, info@l-h.ch
HANNES SCHMID
42 43
24. INTERACTIVITY
At the center of the exhibition stood the installation of six gigantic mobile sculptures, reminiscent of Raymond Loewy’s
Bull’s Eye, consisting of four parts turning at individual speed. In the side rooms, the exhibition featured works of Schmid
depicting Formula 1 drivers as heroes as well as images related to the Bonneville Project,which aimed to set a land speed
record with a Formula 1 car on the Bonneville Sat Flats of Utah, America. After taking in the dialectics between the last
two rooms, visitors could, with help of an app, upload images of their own to be projected onto the mobile installation
and therefore directly contribute to the synthesis with which newly arriving visitors were confronted.
Hence the two-dimensionality of the Formula 1 pictures combined with the three-dimensionality of the pending sculptures
opened up the fourth dimension of time and space - creating a virtual perpetuum mobile.
44 45
25. FACTS FIGURES MOMENTOUS
Exhibition
– Number of visitors 6’370
– Number of guided tours 27
– Number of artworks: 24 (5 Mobiles 19 pictures)
– Uploaded pictures by visitor’s 3’000 pictures
Technical specifications
– Exhibition space 450 m2
– Room height 12 m
– Number of Mobiles 5
– Size and weight per Mobile 365 kg
– Rotational speed variable
– Staff for installation 12 staff
– Duration for construction 4 x 24h
– Duration for deconstruction 2 x 24h
– Total shipping weight 6 tons of equipment in 12 containers delivered to the museum
Events
– Gala Dinner
– Media Conference
– Opening
– Family Art Day
– Workshops
46 47
27. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
A
B
C
D
E
F
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ENTRANCE
3.05 6.05 6.05 6.05 6.05 3.05
Deckenhöhe 12.25
skyworker
skyworker
BESCHREIBUNG AUSSTELLUNG
ANGABEN ÜBER AUSTELLUNG
SPONSOREN TODAY ART MUSEUM
WELCOME DESK
EINGANG
SCHWARZERSTREIFANAMBODEN
LINEBLACKONFLOORPAINTED
ANWAND
EINZELNEZITATEZUSALZUNDGESLLSCHAFT
AUTRORENNSPORT
KULTURUNDÖKONOMIE
FLOOR BLACK PAINTED
FOTOAUFNAHMEN PORTRAITS RENNFAHRER STK 5
TEXT AUSSTELLUNG I
BUBBLE HOUSETEXT AUSSTELLUNG II
MOMENTS
BONNEVILLE SALZSEE GROSSFORMATIGE WERKE
BONNEVILLESALZSEEGROSSFORMATIGEWERKE
AUSGANG
FILM 80 MINUTEN
AUDIO
LOUNGEMOEBEL
LOUNGEMOEBEL
LOUNGEMOEBEL
5.20 6.80 5.05 95 5.20 4.90 1.15 75 2.80 40 1.65 2.95
852.406.8075
335
1.83 1.26
HALOGENSPOT MIT TORBLENDE HALOGENSPOT MIT TORBLENDE
HALOGENSPOTMITTORBLENDE
HALOGENSPOT MIT TORBLENDE HALOGENSPOT MIT TORBLENDE
HALOGENSPOTMITTORBLENDE
1.45
5.90
Deckenhöhe 395
DECKENHÖHE 378
HEP LICHT
21.48 3.38
3.78
5.44
14.80
2.71 23.99 3.60
30.30
1.75
19.68
1.462.186.76
CAM
CAM
ST 250
ST 250
9.01 3.00 3.38 5.82 1.75
FASSADENHÖHE 24 M
+450
3.335.82
3.355.80
11.18
4.56
4.57
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14.HS.PEKING.v2014.vwx
3.6.13
Architekturbüro für Ereignisse
LÜSCHER HIRSCHMÜLLER
DATEINAME:
PLANINHALTKUNDE
PLAN NR
ERSTELLT BEARBEITETDATUM REVIDIERT PLANGRÖSSE MASSSTAB
GR00-100.A8
1:150
GRUNDRISS
A3
HANNES SCHMID
SEITE
1
DAT GEPR.
LOCATION
TODAY ART MUSEUM BEIJING
EXHIBITION 2014
PROJEKT NR
Zürich, Hardturmstrasse 76, 8006 Zürich
Tel. : +41 44 450 43 30, info@l-h.ch
HANNES SCHMID
50 51
28. MEDIA COVERAGE
Chanels1
– Broadcast 3
– Newspaper 10
– Magazine 20
– Online 112
– Total Pieces of Coverage 145
– UBS Microsite 300‘000 hits
Sina Weibo
– Total reach over 3‘000’000
– Total number of fans that have viewed feeds: 256,852
– Hannes’s Weibo Fans: Female 29.4 % Male: 70.6 %
Some examples of Hannes Schmid’s Weibo fans:
– CEO of Sina- Charles Chao 2
1,507,932 Fans
– Today Art Museum 1,385,242 Fans
– Yidian Zhong Guo-Art news 59,049 Fans
– MOART_CN 3
12,498 Fans
– SURGEArt 4
22,134 Fans
– Ingeborg Princess zu Schleswig-Holstein 5
16,083 Fans
1
For a more detailed list go ahead to page 60
2
Chao is one of the top and most recognizable Weibo users, and is very selective about who he following (only 400 accounts)
3
Chinas largest professional artworks online sales agency
4
China’s leading platform for art discovery
5
Contemporary Artist
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32. MEDIA COVERAGE INDEX
Broadcast
– Hua Shu TV | 22 June 2014
– CCTV | 24 June 2014
– China National Radio Video News | 24 June 2014
Newspaper
– Beijing Times | Li Jianya | 25 June 2014
– South China Morning Post | Catherine Shaw | 13 July 2014
– China Culture Daily | Lu Xu | 24 June 2014
– China Culture Daily | Lu Xu | 17 April 2014
– Global Times | 22 April 2014
– Beijing Times | Yi Xiaoyan | 23 April 2014
– Beijing Business Today | Song Yongchun | 30 April 2014
– China Economic Herald | Pan Xiaojuan | 17 May 2014
– Beijing Business Daily | Song Yongchun | 2 July 2014
– The Beijing News | 4 July 2014
Magazines
– Fortune Art | June 2014
– Life Week | Zeng Yan | 3 July 2014
– City Weekend | Laura Fitch | July 2014
– Capital Magazine | Ye Shiwei | July 2014
– China Money | Chen Yi | July 2014
– JMEN | Cho Man Wai | August 2014
– 21st Century Business Review | Juliet Qiu | 4 July 2014
– Tatler (China) | June 2014
– Vogue China | August 2014
– Robb Report China | June 2014
– Scope | Gu Bo | May 2014
– Collection Investment | June 2014
– Blue Morning Magazine | June 2014
– Robb Report Weekly | 23 June 2014
–– Vision | June 2014
– Time Out Beijing | July 2014
– Hi Art | July 2014
– Femina | July 2014
– Art Bank | July 2014
– Life Element | July 2014
– Travel Leisure | July 2014
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33. Online
– The Guardian | Greg Baker | 23 June 2014
– Blouin Artinfo | Belle Zhao | 17 April 2014
– Time Out Beijing Online | 17 June 2014
– Noblesse - Ipad version | Elle Zhu | June 2014
– Wall Street International Magazine Online | 23 June 2014
– City Weekend | 25 June 2014
– Beijing Evening News Online | Mcdonald | 15 April 2014
– 99yishu | 15 April 2014
– Emigrate to Shanghai Magazine | Jovi | 16 April 2014
– China Money Weekly | Xia Li | 16 April 2014
– Finance China (Cai Jing Zhong Guo) | 16 April 2014
– Sina Collection | 16 April 2014
– China Business Journal | Meng Qingwei | 2 July 2014
– Sohu Culture | 16 April 2014
– Fotosay | 16 April 2014
– Artron Exhibition | 16 April 2014
– Artron Contemporary Art | 16 April 2014
– 163.com | 16 April 2014
– China Business Journal | Meng Qingwei | 17 April 2014
– Jingwei.com | 17 April 2014
– China Philanthropist Magazine Online | 18 April 2014
– Tencent Culture | 21 April 2014
– Ifeng Culture | 21 April 2014
– Global Times Online | 21 April 2014
– China Luxus.com | 23 April 2014
– Beijing Times Online | 23 April 2014
– Caijing.com.cn | Yi Xiaoyan | 23 April 2014
– Hiart.cn | Wang Danyi | 27 April 2014
– Artron.net | Dong Wen | 30 April 2014
– ArtsBJ.com | Liu Yingna | 30 April 2014
– China Economic Herald | Pan Xiaojuan | 17 May 2014
– Chinese Calligrapher | 9 June 2014
– 798 Art District Website | 9 June 2014
– Commerce | 9 June 2014
– Diaosujia.net (China Sculptor) | 9 June 2014
– Guohuajia.net (Chinese Painter) | 9 June 2014
– Meishujia.cn | Ji Ping | 9 June 2014
– ArtsBj | 10 June 2014
– Arts.china.cn | 12 June 2014
– Cnarts.net | 12 June 2014
– Msn.com | Ge Xiaonan | 13 June 2014
– Yofond.com | Nye Ling | 13 June 2014
– Sohu.com | 14 June 2014
– Luxury.sohu.com | Liu Kewei | 14 June 2014
– Tom.com | 14 June 2014
– CCHICC | 14 June 2014
– Aislife | 16 June 2014
– CityWeekend | 16 June 2014
– Ifeng | 16 June 2014
– TheBeijinger | 16 June 2014
– Ynet | June 16 2014
– Netease Art | 17 June 2014
– CityWeekend | 18 June 2014
– Photoworld | Wu Shankun | 18 June 2014
– 99ys.com | Zhang Gaoshan | 19 June 2014
– Ccsph.com | 19 June 2014
– Shangliu Tatler | 19 June 2014
– 163.com | Li Jianya | 25 June 2014
– China.com.cn | Li Xiaoming | 25 June 2014
– City Weekend | 25 June 2014
– Sina | 23 June 2014
– Luxury | 25 June 2014
– Artlons | 25 June 2014
– 21CN | 25 June 2014
– Finance HC350 | Zhang Di | 25 June 2014
– Xinhua Photo | 30 June 2014
– Zxart | 2 July 2014
– Sina Mobile | 2 July 2014
– Cang.com | Zeng Yan | 3 July 2014
– CB.com | Meng Qinwei | 3 July 2014
– Art One Republic | 4 July 2014
– HeBei News | 4 July 2014
– Mask9.com | June 2014
– Artron | June 2014
– Life Magazine: Mobile Phone version | June 2014
– Hiart | June 2014
– Kaixin | June, 2014
– Fortune Art Online | July 2014
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34. TODAY ART MUSEUM
TheTodayArt Museum in Beijing is China‘s first private,non-profit museum.The Museum was founded by Zhang Baoquan
in 2002.As the country‘s first not-for-profit, non-governmental art museum in China, the Today Art Museum is dedicated
to establishing an appropriate development strategy for museums of its kind within a Chinese context.
„Foothold on today, outlook for tomorrow“ is the Today Art Museum‘s slogan. The museum‘s focus is on Chinese con-
temporary art, its trends and key figures. At the same time, the institution strives to discover and support young artists
in the community. Through the construction of a larger institutional framework and by carrying on relevant academic
practices, the Today Art Museum hopes to solidify its standing in the history of art and offer a multi-tiered approach to
China’s burgeoning art scene.
The museum also promotes international dialogues through exhibitions and events that provide structure for meaningful
cultural exchange between Chinese and non-Chinese artists and organizations.
http://www.todayartmuseum.com
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35. HANNES SCHMID
Combining profound insider knowledge with an instructive outsider perspective, Swiss photographer and artist Hannes
Schmid achieves fascinating insights into worlds both known and unknown to onlookers. He is probably best known to a
wide audience for his work on the Marlboro Cowboy, a concept that he re-invented in the 90s and which found its way
into conceptual art.
His complex oeuvre, consisting of photographic essays as well as commissioned work, covers Western rock and pop
idols, religious or social outcasts, or stars of the fashion or motor racing scene and alike. It sheds light on social and
cultural phenomena that shape our present, globalized world, examines individual and collective behaviour, or advertises
products by creating stories that let consumers forget they are looking at commercials. While producing a universally
understandable language, Schmid’s camera lens always captures the singularity of a happening, a person, or a product.
66 67
36. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to express our gratitude to the following institutions.
The exhibition was presented by
Partner / Main sponsor
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