Rolls-Royce to preview a new commission by Isaac Julien during the 56th Venice Biennale

Isaac Julien will collaborate with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars during the Venice Biennale to preview a new film installation entitled Stones Against Diamonds, 2015. The work, by the renowned British artist and Turner Prize nominee, will debut during the Venice Biennale Vernissage, ahead of a public exhibition of the work, presented by Rolls-Royce, during Art Basel in Basel at the Elisabethenkirche, June 2015. Following Basel, the work will be donated by the artist to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London. Filmed in remote glacial ice caves in the South West of Iceland, the work has been inspired by a passage from a letter written by the Italian-born Brazilian modernist architect and designer, Lina Bo Bardi. The artist explores the architect’s love for semi-precious stones, believing them to be more beautiful than precious gemstones, whilst investigating the role of the subconscious in creative production. The film will explore the portrayal of some of the most beautiful objects as the least precious in a conventional sense. In supporting the production of the work, Rolls-Royce has enabled Julien and a crew of almost 50 people to gain rare access to the precious wilderness of Iceland, filming deep in the heart of spectacular glacial caves, formed in ice over thousands of years. In advance of the filming, Isaac Julien travelled to the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, England, to study the unique blend of peerless engineering and timeless hand-craftsmanship that goes into every Rolls-Royce motor car. Here he was inspired to incorporate the Spirit of Ecstasy into his work. Within Stones Against Diamonds the iconic mascot, played by Vanessa Myrie, an actress and performer who frequently appears in Julien’s work, acts as a ‘spirit guide’ taking the viewer on a journey through a symbolic glistening landscape of glaciers, rocks and black volcanic sands. Richard Carter, Director of Global Communications, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars said, “We are honoured to have enabled renowned artist Isaac Julien to create such a captivating work for the Rolls-Royce art programme. The scale of the work and inspiration found in celebrated architect and designer Lina Bo Bardi and her love for spectacular natural materials resonates with Rolls-Royce Bespoke design - where the finest components come together to create the best cars in the world". Isaac Julien commented on the work, “The cave can be read as a metaphor of the unconscious, a place of rich beauty but difficult to access except through the processes of psychoanalysis and artistic reflection. By inserting some of Bo Bardi’s emblematic architectural elements in the cave, such as her iconic spiral staircase and glass easels, I hope to make a connection between her work and these organic aspects, the stones and the carved glacial ice, the simplicity of forms that was one of Lina’s signatures.” Stones against Diamonds is a prelude to a larger piece that Julien is to complete in 2016, which will meditate on Bo Bardi’s creative production, and will be shot in Italy and Brazil. After being shown in Basel at the Elisabethen Kirchen, the work will be donated to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London. The public viewing dates for the showing of the work during Art Basel in Basel in 2015 at the Elisabethenkirche will be from 16 to 17 June 2015. Stones Against Diamonds is commissioned as part of the Rolls-Royce art programme, which draws together the handcrafted elegance of the marque’s motor cars with contemporary artists around the world. Internationally acclaimed artists including Ugo Rondinone, Erwin Wurm, Regina Silveira, Will Cotton, Angela Bulloch and Morgan Wong have featured in the programme. - Ends -