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Southern Guild announces boldly innovative partnership with motoring force, BMW

At a media conference held on 24 May 2018 at the Guild Gallery in the Silo District at the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, Southern Guild announced a powerful new partnership with BMW South Africa. As South Africa’s premier platform for collectible and limited-edition design, Southern Guild curates a stable of trailblazing local designers and artists. Its stature within the South African design context and its reputation abroad make Southern Guild a perfect alignment opportunity for BMW, a leading force in luxury class motoring here in South Africa and one of the world’s most coveted vehicle brands.

This coming together of two pre-eminent brands will result in a dynamic year-round programme of design-led events and initiatives that are set to ignite local audiences. Southern Guild will conceptualise and drive this programme, which includes interactive dinners, exhibitions and experiential activations.

_Southern Guild_Stellar exhibition_credit Justin Patrick

Photo Credits: Justin Patrick

 

Trevyn McGowan, founder and CEO of the Guild Group (whose brands include Southern Guild), comments on the new partnership:

“Naturally, we are thrilled to be entering into such a mutually supportive partnership, particularly one where the pursuit of excellence on both sides is so clear. Each BMW is indeed an immaculately designed vehicle and this brilliant execution finds its echo point in the world-class designer pieces we promote through Southern Guild.”

BMW, in turn, is no stranger to the world of creativity, art and design. For almost 50 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in over 100 cultural co-operations worldwide. The company places the main focus of its long-term commitment on contemporary and modern art, classical music and jazz as well as architecture and design.

Artists such as our locally renowned Esther Mahlangu as well as other international artists such as Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Daniel Barenboim, Jonas Kaufmann, Cao Fei, John Baldessari and architect Zaha Hadid have co-operated with BMW.

Besides co-initiatives, such as BMW Tate Live, the BMW Art Journey and the “Opera for All” concerts in Berlin, Munich and London, the company also partners with leading museums and art fairs as well as orchestras and opera houses around the world. The BMW Group takes absolute creative freedom in all its cultural activities – as this initiative is as essential for producing groundbreaking artistic work, as it is for major innovations in a successful business. The brand’s overriding ethos of “Sheer Driving Pleasure” and its pursuit of innovation will infuse the array of events that Southern Guild has planned.

Says CEO of BMW Group South Africa & Sub-Saharan Africa, Tim Abbott: “We at BMW are interested in what drives the pioneers of our culture to inspire tomorrow. We want to be part of creating a sublime kind of new, to see those around us reach a superior level of excellence – just as we already strive to achieve this by creating luxury vehicles. We believe in the front-runners. And by way of this new partnership with Southern Guild, we are proudly supporting these bold, courageous voices of the design industry.”

The newly launched partnership will be celebrated with the first of its new series of events set to take place in July 2018, once Southern Guild returns from its influential annual showing at the prestigious collectible design fair Design Miami / in Basel, Switzerland, in June 2018.

For more info on Southern Guild visit southernguild.co.za.

For more info on BMW South Africa visit www.bmw.co.za.