HERNDON, Va., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ --

• After "Sleepless Nights," Audi returns as sponsor of both Design Miami/ and Art Basel Miami Beach
• Partnering up with Design Miami/, Tom Dixon and the Rubell Family Collection, Audi presents "The Art of Progress" exhibit and the all-new Audi A8
• In the spirit of the 're:design Simpson Park' project, Audi donates playground to Miami Beach to benefit the community
  

Audi today announced that several weeks after the Title sponsorship of "Sleepless Nights," a dusk-till-dawn, citywide celebration of the arts, Audi returns as sponsor of both Design Miami/ and Art Basel Miami Beach, the world's leading design and art fairs. Having joined Design Miami/ just one year after the fair's inception, this year marks the fourth consecutive year in a partnership where Audi not only fulfills a traditional sponsorship role, but actively participates as an exhibitor and provides content. For Audi, both engagements mean an exciting presence in the cultural community of Miami.

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"Audi's participation demonstrates how powerful and beneficial our partnerships with the artistic and corporate communities can truly be," says Matti Herrera Bower, Mayor of Miami Beach. "By working collaboratively with a broad range of sectors and talented artists, we can enrich lives as well as the entire community of Miami Beach."

This year, the collaboration will reach a new level, coinciding with the unveiling of the brand's flagship model, the all-new 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 and coincide with the Vernissage of "The Art of Progress" exhibit. Inspired by the key attributes of the new Audi A8 and the brand's core philosophy, "The Art of Progress" will bring together two outstanding partners from the worlds of art and design: British design superstar Tom Dixon and the Miami-based Rubell Family Collection. After the Collectors' days on November 30 and December 1, the Audi Pavilion will open to Miami residents and neighbors.

Once the Pavilion is removed, a playground donated by Audi to the City of Miami Beach will be built on the site where the Pavilion stood. After the 're:design Simpson Park' project in 2008, where Audi partnered with the City of Miami, renowned landscape architect Enzo Enea and green architect Chad Oppenheim to donate a stunning new entrance to the park as one of the unique natural treasures in Miami, the playground is this year's Audi dedicated community project during Design Miami/ and Art Basel Miami Beach 2009.

"Having partnered with Design Miami/ since 2006 and with Art Basel Miami Beach since 2008, we support and affirm our commitment to the arts and philanthropy and, at the same time to Miami, as an important cultural and economical crossroad for the Americas," says Johan de Nysschen, president Audi of America. "While our CSR initiatives include international multi-year programs such as Best Buddies International, giving back to communities on a local level is equally important to us. We are proud to see the impact that projects like 'Sleepless Nights' and 're:design Simpson Park' have made on Miami residents and neighbors. In this context, it comes as no surprise that we choose Miami as an ever-rising cultural city for 'The Art of Progress' exhibit and the launch of our new flagship model."

Bringing together new works from 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,' the art symbolizes cultural progress and the design technological progress which are both synthesized in the new Audi A8."

Related to the exhibition "Beg Borrow and Steal" concurrently on view through the Rubell Family Collection, 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. 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' approach 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."

For his part, Tom Dixon, through Design Research Studio, presents the "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 of both Tom Dixon's designs and Audi'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 perfection 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 visualize or explain in words, and tried to find the purest and simplest ways to express them."

In addition to "The Art of Progress," spotlighting Audi as a "designer among designers," Audi will showcase the new Audi A8 at Design Miami/ in a site-specific installation: the full-size car will turn into a miniature collectible on a coffee-table and be surrounded by supersized furniture. This year, during Design Miami/ and Art Basel Miami Beach 2009, Audi will continue to provide VIP shuttle service in the Audi Q7 TDI clean diesel vehicles in an effort to reduce the events' overall carbon footprint.

Audi Pavilion

46th & 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

December 2 through 5, 2009

Open daily from 11am-7 pm

About Audi of America

Audi of America Inc. and its 270 dealers offer a full line of German-engineered luxury vehicles. The Audi lineup is one of the freshest in the industry with 23 models, including 12 models launched during model years 2008 and 2009. Audi is among the most successful brands globally. In selling one million vehicles worldwide in 2008, AUDI AG recorded its 13th consecutive record year for sales and profits. Visit www.audiusa.com or www.audiusanews.com for more information regarding Audi vehicle and business issues.

About Design Miami/

Design Miami/ is the most prominent and substantive forum for international design, representing a convergence of commerce and culture. Its annual shows in Basel, Switzerland (June) and Miami, USA (December) bring together the most influential designers, collectors, dealers, curators and critics from around the world. For more information please visit www.designmiami.com.

About the Rubell Family Collection and the Contemporary Arts Foundation

The Rubell Family Collection is one of the leading collections of contemporary art in the world. Started in 1964, soon after Don and Mera Rubell were married, the collecting group expanded some years later when their children Jason and Jennifer, then quite young, joined their parents in acquiring art. Jason's wife, Michelle, is the latest addition to this collaborative effort. The family's extensive collection of works dates from the 1960s to the present. In 1994, the Rubell family founded the Contemporary Arts Foundation (CAF), a 501(c )(3) non-profit located in the Wynwood Art District in downtown Miami, Florida. Open to the public since 1996, the CAF and Rubell Family Collection are housed in a converted 45,000-square-foot former Drug Enforcement Agency confiscated-goods facility. The museum features twenty-seven galleries, a sculpture garden, a research library with over 40,000 volumes including rare texts and periodicals, a film and lecture theatre, and a bookstore. CAF believes that great works of art are an intrinsically transcendent, elevating, liberating and empowering force, and that the artifacts of our time are the legacy of society as a whole. Based on this premise, the Foundation seeks to prompt social intercourse and debate, an essential freedom of a democratic society, by sharing with the world the physical, sensual and intellectual properties of contemporary art. CAF advances public interaction at the Rubell Family Collection by presenting works from the collection of the Rubell family in rotating, curated exhibitions with accompanying documentation, as well as through a variety of educational and community outreach programs. CAF commissions new works of art and produces traveling exhibitions, which are presented throughout the world. In addition, CAF operates as a lending resource for curators and museums.

About Tom Dixon

Tom Dixon is a British furniture and lighting designer who first rose to prominence in the 1980s. He designed the iconic 'S' chair whilst working for Italian giant Cappellini before starting his own company 'Eurolounge,' through which he designed and made the celebrated Jack light. In 1998 Tom was appointed as head of design by Habitat where he then became Creative Director until 2008. Tom Dixon's products are in permanent museum collections across the globe including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York and National Craft Museum, Tokyo. Tom holds an honorary doctorate of the University of the Arts London and is a cultural ambassador for the UK's Department of Culture Media and Sport. In 2000, Tom's work was recognised by the award of an OBE by Her Majesty The Queen. With a range of over 50 products sold through a distributor network across 52 countries, Tom Dixon launches new collections annually at the Milan international furniture fair. The Tom Dixon brand also includes an Interior Design arm, Design Research Studio who have designed Shoreditch House for the Soho House Group, as well as Sony and Tokyo Hipsters Club.

SOURCE Audi of America Inc.

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