UBS and Fondation Beyeler to present Artist Talks: Marina Abramović in London during Frieze Week

Zurich, 7 September 2017 – UBS announced today that on 4 October 2017, during Frieze week in London, one of the world’s most celebrated performance artists, Marina Abramović, will take part in its new Artists Talks series, which launched this spring in partnership with the Fondation Beyeler, Switzerland. Artists Talks gives audiences access to major contemporary artists and their creative processes. The programme began in May 2017 with Tino Sehgal at Fondation Beyeler, and continues with Wolfgang Tillmans for the second event in the series on 7 September 2017. Both Sehgal and Tillmans currently have major exhibitions at the museum. Wolfgang Tillmans is represented in the UBS Art Collection, which encompasses 30,000 artworks, through the celebrated Freischwimmer series.

Artists Talks is the latest collaboration between Fondation Beyeler and UBS, building on the two organisations’ 16-year partnership. The special presentation on 4 October will feature Ms. Abramović in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Director of the Serpentine Galleries. Livestreamed on the Facebook page of Fondation Beyeler, Artist Talks: Marina Abramović offers a unique opportunity for audiences around the world to hear first-hand about the artist’s exploration of her own physical and mental limits. Audiences online will be encouraged to participate with questions in the comments section of the Facebook Live.

Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade in the early 1970s, Abramović has been a pioneer of performance art, creating some of the form’s most important early works. Perhaps more than any other artist, Abramović’s work has laid bare the human body’s complexities, limitations, strengths and vulnerabilities. This Artist Talks event will offer insight into the artist’s creative process and body of work.

Sam Keller, Director of Fondation Beyeler said: “Marina Abramović is an extraordinary artist and a performance art pioneer of legendary status, she is also an exceptional and charismatic speaker. To see her live is truly a unique experience. Thanks to the collaboration between Fondation Beyeler and UBS, we are delighted that we can provide a platform for the dialogue between the artist and the public.”

Johan Jervøe, Group Chief Marketing Officer, UBS: “UBS is excited to deepen its 16 year partnership with the Fondation Beyeler by collaborating on the Artists Talks programme. Through this new series we strengthen our offer of direct access and insight into the most influential and dynamic artists working today”.‎

Further Artists Talks events are planned for major cities around the world, as well as at Fondation Beyeler, and further details will be announced in due course.
 

Artist Talks, co-hosted by Fondation Beyeler and UBS

BASEL, SWITZERLAND
Artist Talks: Wolfgang Tillmans
Thursday, 7 September 2017, 18.30
Fondation Beyeler, Baselstrasse 101, 4125 Riehen-Basel
Presented in German
Livestreamed on facebook.com/FondationBeyeler

LONDON, UK
Artist Talks: Marina Abramović
Wednesday, 4 October 2017, 19.00
The Serpentine Sackler Gallery, West Carriage Drive, Kensington Gardens, London, W2 2AR
Presented in English
Tickets: fondationbeyeler.ch/en/artisttalks
Livestreamed on facebook.com/FondationBeyeler

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Notes to editors

UBS and Contemporary Art
The UBS Art Collection is one of the most important corporate collections of contemporary art in the world. With over 30,000 artworks it represents emerging talents to some of the most important artists of the last 60 years. In addition to the UBS Art Collection, UBS has an extensive roster of contemporary art programs that include the firm’s long-term support for the premier international Art Basel shows in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong, for which UBS serves as global Lead Partner; the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; and a global exhibition tour of “WOMEN: New Portraits,” an exhibition of newly commissioned photographs by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz. These activities are complemented by  partnerships with fine art institutions including the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland, Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan, the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. UBS also provides its clients with insight into the contemporary art world through the free art news app UBS Planet Art, collaborations with the Swiss Institute, and the online resource Artsy, as well as through the UBS Art Competence Center and UBS Arts Forum. For more information about UBS’s commitment to contemporary art, visit ubs.com/art.

Artist Talks, hosted by Fondation Beyeler and UBS
Artist Talks is a new, internationally oriented programme of the Fondation Beyeler organized with the support of UBS. The series features an open, dynamic format, ranging from classic presentations by artists to moderated conversations between artists and personalities from the art world. In addition to Basel, there are plans for Artist Talks to be co-hosted by local art institutions in major international cities. An extensive digital campaign based on videos and social media is a central element of the programme’s communication with the wider public and can be accessed via the Fondation Beyeler’s website fondationbeyeler.ch/en/artisttalks.

Fondation Beyeler
The Fondation Beyeler is a museum of modern and contemporary art founded in 1997 by the art collectors and gallery owners Ernst and Hildy Beyeler. The collection includes over 300 post-Impressionist, Classical Modern, and contemporary works as well as ethnographic art from Africa, Alaska and Oceania. The museum building in the idyllic Berower Park was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. Over 6.5 million people from all over the world have visited the Fondation Beyeler since it opened and with between 300,000 and 400,000 visitors a year, it is the most visited art museum in Switzerland. It shows three to four temporary exhibitions a year that are devoted to pioneering artists or art movements, including Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Ferdinand Hodler, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder, and the Surrealists, as well as Gerhard Richter, Jeff Koons, Marlene Dumas, Richard Serra, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. The Fondation Beyeler also offers an extensive programme of art education and events, with guided tours, workshops, concerts, readings and multilingual art historical publications. This year, the Fondation Beyeler revealed its plans for an extension project with the Swiss Architect Peter Zumthor. For more information, visit the museum’s website fondationbeyeler.ch or follow it on social media: Facebook; Instagram; Twitter and YouTube.

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