Artist Nino Mustica teams up with Land Rover on a gravity-defying installation in London
Land Rover's latest urban intervention isn't in the shape of a new vehicle. Instead, the company has initiated an artistic collaboration that'll grace the banks of the Thames throughout the week of Frieze London. 'Unstoppable Spirit' is the work of Italian artist Nino Mustica, working hand in hand with Land Rover's unstoppable design director Gerry McGovern, a man with a strong sense of exactly where he wants his brand to go.
Flanking the Royal Festival Hall, in what's become a favoured spot for bold temporary structures, the seven-metre-tall pieces make a major impact. Mustica's paintings and sculptures have evolved over the course of his long career, finding fresh expression through technology and the leap from canvas to physical objects. Based in Milan since the mid 1980s, he was an early adopter of 3D-modelling software, using it as an artistic tool to create dynamic sculptures that were a visual precursor to so much of today's data-driven architecture and design.
Mustica's innovations have found a perfect parallel with the auto industry, and particularly with the strong, sculptural, unashamedly modern design language Land Rover has crafted over the past few years. Of course the new sculptures are also literal platforms to present a new product, and the car in question, the new Land Rover Discovery Sport, is an appropriately tough and dynamic machine to synch with Mustica's fluid forms.
The end result is akin to an explosion in a computer-design lab, with the sleek bodyshell of McGovern's Discovery Sport floating above Mustica's trademark splashes. The hybrid installations celebrate the interplay between surface, shape and light – and also Land Rover's ability to transcend any surface and any condition.
ADDRESS
Riverside Terrace
Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road
London SE1 8XX
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.
-
Utilitarian men’s fashion that will elevate your everyday
From Prada to Margaret Howell, utilitarian and workwear-inspired men’s fashion gets an upgrade for S/S 2024
By Jack Moss Published
-
Gerhard Richter unveils new sculpture at Serpentine South
Gerhard Richter revisits themes of pattern and repetition in ‘Strip-Tower’ at London’s Serpentine South
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Vipp’s Scandinavian guesthouse offers a sleek setting amid a wild landscape
Vipp Cold Hawaii is a Scandinavian guesthouse designed by architecture studio Hahn Lavsen in Denmark’s Thy National Park
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Gerhard Richter unveils new sculpture at Serpentine South
Gerhard Richter revisits themes of pattern and repetition in ‘Strip-Tower’ at London’s Serpentine South
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Peter Blake’s sculptures spark joy at Waddington Custot in London
‘Peter Blake: Sculpture and Other Matters’, at London's Waddington Custot, spans six decades of the artist's career
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Oozing, squidgy, erupting forms come alive at Hayward Gallery
‘When Forms Come Alive: Sixty Years of Restless Sculpture’ at Hayward Gallery, London, is a group show full of twists and turns
By Hannah Silver Published
-
New glass sculpture creates a verdant wonderland at Apple’s Cupertino HQ
‘Mirage’ at Apple Park is the work of Zeller & Moye and artist Katie Paterson, a shimmering array of glass columns that snakes through the grounds of the company’s monumental HQ
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Man Ray’s sculptures go on show in New York
‘Man Ray: Other Objects’ opens at Luxembourg + Co, New York, revealing their author’s ‘artistic revolution’
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The best London art exhibitions to see now
Your guide to the best London art exhibitions, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Erwin Wurm’s pop-coloured fantasy land at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
In Erwin Wurm’s first UK museum show, ‘Trap of the Truth’, the artist transforms Yorkshire Sculpture Park into a slightly warped wonderland (10 June 2023 – 28 April 2024)
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
Sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro transforms Fendi’s Rome HQ into a theatre of myth and magic
Fendi’s Roman HQ sets the scene for ‘Il Grande Teatro delle Civiltà’ a major show by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, who has also created a one-off edition of the house’s iconic Peekaboo bag. Read more in the July 2023 Issue of Wallpaper*, on newsstands 8 June
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published