Ideas that move: Volkswagen supports exhibition "Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture" at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

"Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture" tells the story from the original idea of a car up to possible scenarios in the decades to come, putting the focus on how this development has been reflected with creative measures. The exhibition addresses influences on industrial and product design sparked by the experience of speed, freedom and flexibility. Room is also given to transformations of urban areas and unfavorable effects on the environment caused by the extensive popularity of the car. It then culminates in a series of concepts for future ways to satisfy individual mobility needs.

15 leading universities from all over the world with a focus on design, architecture, technology or art have developed sketches and models that envision life and forms of mobility in the year 2086 – the 200th birthday of the automobile. The cooperation with the Yale School of Architecture and Volkswagen Group Design under the direction of Klaus Zyciora has created the "futureNOMAD" project. The interdisciplinary ideas are an attempt to find possible responses to the upcoming ecological and social challenges of our world.

The exhibition's curator, Sir Norman Foster, summarized the project mission: "This exhibition celebrates the art of the automobile design and explores its cultural links to art and architecture. It could be a requiem for the age of combustion as it makes a leap into the future with a gallery devoted to the work of fifteen schools of design and architecture, who have been invited to imagine mobility at the end of this century – coincident with the 200th anniversary of the birth of the automobile."

Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, remarks at the opening of the exhibition: “Mobility is still a highly emotional subject. The power of design, of a brand and its identity remain key. Autonomous driving increases the opportunities for benefitting from mobility, for enjoying more comfort, and improved safety in particular. And mobility reduces its negative facets as it becomes more sustainable. The MOTION exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao fuses technological innovation with aesthetics and emotions, and it provides promising and motivating ideas for a future in a rapidly and radically changing world.”

The exhibition features around forty original automobiles including selected cars from the Group's collection: a 1951 Volkswagen Beetle and a 1962 Volkswagen Typ 2. A sound installations realized with the support of Pink-Floyd drummer Nick Mason, gives an acoustic insight into the history of the car – finalizing with the sound installation of the sound of an ID. Buzz.

The sponsorship of the exhibition in Bilbao is part of Volkswagen's international cultural engagementVolkswagen's collaborations include a multi-year partnership with Neue Nationalgalerie and Hamburger Bahnhof, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, a partnership with documenta fifteen, and continuous support of the international work of the Dresden Music Festival. The activities are vital elements for Volkswagen to assume corporate social responsibility and empower a free, forward-looking and inspirational dialogue between people.