Artist Nino Mustica teams up with Land Rover on a gravity-defying installation in London
![Red art sculpture of land rover](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/nUM6yUm8XsMFPyBVcprpEH-415-80.jpg)
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.
The sculptures are literal platforms to present the new Land Rover Discovery Sport, an appropriately tough and dynamic machine that synchs with Mustica's fluid forms
They blast upward seven metres, akin to an explosion in a computer-design lab, with the sleek bodyshell of the car floating within
Land Rover design director Gerry McGovern, left, working on the designs with artist Nino Mustica
The two pieces flank Royal Festival Hall in what's become a favoured spot for bold temporary structures
Mustica's innovations align perfectly with the strong, sculptural, unashamedly modern design language Land Rover has crafted over the past few years
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 + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
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.
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self’s colourful ode to the landscape of her childhood
Tschabalala Self’s new show at Finland's Espoo Museum of Modern Art evokes memories of her upbringing, in vibrant multi-dimensional vignettes
By Millen Brown-Ewens Published
-
Wanås Konst sculpture park merges art and nature in Sweden
Wanås Konst’s latest exhibition, 'The Ocean in the Forest', unites land and sea with watery-inspired art in the park’s woodland setting
By Alice Godwin Published
-
Pino Pascali’s brief and brilliant life celebrated at Fondazione Prada
Milan’s Fondazione Prada honours Italian artist Pino Pascali, dedicating four of its expansive main show spaces to an exhibition of his work
By Kasia Maciejowska Published
-
John Cage’s ‘now moments’ inspire Lismore Castle Arts’ group show
Lismore Castle Arts’ ‘Each now, is the time, the space’ takes its title from John Cage, and sees four artists embrace the moment through sculpture and found objects
By Amah-Rose Abrams 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