Audi Celebrates ‘The Art of Progress’ on Miami Beach With World-premiere of the New Audi A8

HERNDON, Va., Nov 19, 2009 – Audi today announced that the culmination of its 100th anniversary celebration will be held at the world’s most important art and design fairs, Design Miami/ and Art Basel Miami Beach. At this prestigious event, Audi will reveal for the first time the all-new 2010 edition of the brand’s flagship sedan, the Audi A8. The reveal will take place at the Audi Pavilion, a temporary museum structure built on Miami Beach in proximity to the iconic Fontainebleau hotel. The reveal and exhibition will coincide with the Vernissage of “The Art of Progress” exhibit, which itself is inspired by key attributes of the new A8, as well as the Audi brand’s core philosophy.

“Since our inception, Audi has embraced progress in the quest to create groundbreaking technologies and deliver new ideas to the road. Just as artists make it a mission to work for the untold future, so does Audi design to be relevant not just today, but for many years to come,” said Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management, Audi AG. “The new Audi A8 embodies everything Audi stands for: fascinating innovation, uncompromising perfection, consummate craftsmanship, iconic design and new ways of thinking. This is why we chose to present this car in this progressive environment while continuing our commitment to fostering design culture and the arts.”

Being a satellite exhibition of Design Miami/ 2009, the “Art of Progress” will host a by-invitation-only Audi Collectors’ Brunch on December 1st and then open its doors to the fairs’ visitors and Miami residents from December 2nd to 5th. In addition, as “designer among designers,” Audi will showcase the new Audi A8 at a Design Miami/ site-specific installation: a full-size car will turn into a miniature collectible on a coffee-table and be surrounded by supersized furniture.

For the fourth year, Audi remains the Exclusive Automotive Sponsor of Design Miami/, the pre-eminent fair for limited-edition design, and continues to provide Q7 TDI clean diesel vehicles as VIP shuttles to the fair’s VIP guests.v

Bringing together new works from British superstar designer Tom Dixon and a selection of contemporary art masterpieces on loan from the Rubell Family Collection, the “Art of Progress” will merge culture and technology, design and art in an exceptional way. Audi has partnered up with Design Miami/ to develop the exhibit’s curative concept.

“We see the combination of the Rubell Family Collection art exhibition and the Design Miami/ Tom Dixon installations working together to support the story of the new A8: ‘The Art of Progress,” says Ambra Medda, Design Miami/ Director. “Progress can be measured in both cultural and technological achievements. Culture speaks to the human desire for passion and meaning, while technology addresses our desire for easier, more refined, more sophisticated living. In the context of “The Art of Progress,” art represents both cultural progress and technological progress, both of which are synthesized in the new Audi A8.”

Related to the exhibition “Beg Borrow and Steal” concurrently on view at the Rubell Family Collection, the art on display at the Audi Pavilion explores the important trope of aesthetic appropriation, by which artists combine and recombine aspects of both everyday popular culture and the art-historical canon into their work. Also included in the Audi Pavilion are a number of pieces by John Baldessari, whose work often incorporates existing images and juxtaposes them to create new meanings.

“Our collaboration with Audi on this exhibition is particularly appropriate. In pioneering new innovations in technology, Audi appreciates that advances in science and engineering could not exist without corollary advances in art“, say Mera and Don Rubell, Founders of the Rubell Family Collection. “The most interesting contemporary art almost always engages with a future that is not yet known. The artists we chose for, “The Art of Progress” engage that future, building on the ideas and innovations of the past, coming up with their own, and leaving their mark on history. We are grateful to Audi for sharing with us this vision.”

Tom Dixon, through Design Research Studio, will present “Light Light.” A centerpiece in the “Art of Progress” exhibit, “Light Light” features 130-square meters of specially designed, aluminum-polyhedral lights and helium balloons that emphasize weightless structure and luminosity, craftsmanship and precision, all vital features both of Tom Dixon’s designs and the Audi brand’s core competences, such as lightweight aluminum construction and LED light design. For this installation, Tom Dixon’s designers and technicians have created and experimented with new shapes to demonstrate the craftsmanship, technical development and design passion involved in the making of the new Audi A8.

“We had privileged access to a world that very few people get to see,” says Tom Dixon. “The design and development areas of Audi are extraordinary exercises in the most complex and advanced manufacturing techniques. The constant pursuit of the ideal is an inspiration for anyone involved in design and industry. We looked at a series of qualities in the new Audi A8 that are difficult to articulate in words, and tried to find the purest and simplest ways to express them in our own way.”

Audi Pavilion


45th & Collins Avenue


Miami Beach

December 2 through 5, 2009


Open daily from 12-8 pm

Audi Lounge at Design Miami


Design Miami Temporary Structure


NE 39th Street and 1st Court

Miami Design District