Nikita Gale x BMW Open Work by Frieze: The Politicisation of Sound

Curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, the BMW Open Work by Frieze invites an artist to develop an ambitious project utilising BMW design and technology to innovatively pursue their practice, encouraging artists to explore new, undiscovered territories.

This year, visual artist Nikita Gale was invited to work closely with BMW i7 designers to create a site-specific installation titled 63/22 presented in Frieze’s BMW Lounge. Gale’s practice is a visual and critical enquiry into themes of invisibility and audibility, reimagining the dynamic between performer and spectator. Their multidisciplinary installations, incorporating objects such as concrete, barricades and microphone stands, address the ways in which space and sound are politicised. Gale’s recent work considers the role of the audience as a “social arena, examining the ways in which silence, noise, and visibility function as political positions and conditions.”

Building upon the artist’s interest in the spatialisation of sound, the installation 63/22 reflected on the relationship between automotive and sound technologies. One can trace this idea back to the 1963, when the Gibson Firebird, one of the most popular electric guitars, was designed by car designer Ray Dietrich. Gale’s chosen medium for Freize London was a sculptural installation comprising five customised electric guitars in collaboration with luthier Ian Malone.

Named after historically significant and iconic Black women guitarists, Memphis Minnie, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Barbara Lynn, Big Mama Thornton, and Joan Armatrading, each guitar aims to deconstruct conventional notions presented by the music industry – a famously cis male-dominanted space. Activated in the lounge through a series of live acts performed by musicians invited by Gale, the guitars played through the BMW i7, transforming the car into a sound amp, amplifying the relationship between the car, sound technologies and creativity.