‘To drive an Art-Car is a great responsibility’

Augusto Farfus

The Brazilian Augusto Farfus returns to the Macau Grand Prix driving the “special” BMW M6 GT3 Number 18 Art-Car. As the number indicates, this is the 18th of a series that started back in 1975, by the hand of French racecar driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain. Poulain wanted to invite artists to use a car as a canvas to create a new art form, to connect the two industries.

As Farfus told the Times on the sidelines of a Macau Grand Prix community event in Taipa yesterday, “to drive a [BMW] ‘Art-Car’ is a great responsibility and also a great honor,” he said, noting, “This is a brand-new car that will compete in this event and after racing here he will be straight to BMW Museum where it will be displayed [together with the other 17 previews Art-Cars.”
“I need to say that I’m not an expert in art so I can’t say much about it but I know that this car is made by [Chinese artist] Cao Fei and on which she makes use of [augmented] reality [to show her work]. This is a completely different thing and a very new thing,” he said, noting that a lot of people have been asking me, if it is “not just a plain black car.”

“To those I must reply that probably 20 years ago when Andy Warhol picked a brush to paint its BMW Art-Car, some people should have looked to him and asked: with a brush?” Farfus said, adding, “Art is not to discuss, it’s to participate and to appreciate.”

Showing enthusiasm, the Brazilian concluded saying, “if I have the chance to participate in this [project] and leave my name in history, it’s an honor.”