These artists investigate some of today's complex topics, from identity to e-commerce

Discover the finalists of this year’s BMW Art Journey

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‘A journey has to be arduous’ says Jes Fan, one of the artists shortlisted for this year’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/about/initiatives/bmw-art-journey" target="_blank">BMW Art Journey</a>, alongside sculptor Leelee Chan and artist duo Enzo Camacho and Amy Lien. Since 2015, BMW and Art Basel’s joint initiative enables an artist to develop a new project almost anywhere in the world. Previous winners have visited Jerusalem, the Bikini Atoll, the Southern Indian state of Kerala, and Ghana.&nbsp;‘I want to find permanence in flux,’ Fan continues. The artist was born in Canada and grew up in Hong Kong, where he is represented by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/13611/Empty-Gallery" target="_blank">Empty Gallery</a>; ten years ago, he moved to the United States to study sculpture. Fan immediately felt drawn to glass and focused on this demanding material: ‘Glass responds to gravity in a different way than other materials. I like how it continuously changes when being worked on.’ Now based in both New York City and Hong Kong, the artist continues to feature glass in many of his works, despite the fact that ‘contemporary art is so allergic to craft,’ he adds with a smile. Transformation is central to his multidisciplinary practice, which also incorporates unusual elements such as hormones, melanin, or fat. Sometimes, Fan displays them in medical vials, almost as ready-mades; but he also injects them into the glass vessels he creates, referencing Petri dishes and test tubes. In both instances, Fan addresses the conflict between identity’s public and private nature. Identity is a quest in itself, he says, but not necessarily a restless one: ‘Movement is constant, so to me, it’s about finding a home in your consciousness.’&nbsp;

Leelee Chan sees her thinking process as a journey itself. One of the things that occupy the Hong Kong-based artist’s mind are discarded items - but ‘not the kind you’d find at a flea market,’ she specifies. Chan, who is represented by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/8469/Capsule-Shanghai" target="_blank">Capsule Shanghai</a>, prefers to use waste&nbsp;–&nbsp;polystyrene packaging, umbrella ribs, broken teapots – to create works reminiscent of Arte Povera. ‘These objects are open to free association. I see myself as a transmitter, highlighting their potential.’ Like archeological artifacts, Chan’s pieces invite the viewer to speculate about their original use. Her practice also aims to interrogate the logic of consumer culture: By combining prosaic elements into works of art, they are given new meaning and value. ‘My relationship to these objects is not the one consumer culture wants me to have,’ she states; she hopes her work will help viewers reconsider them as well. Chan is also interested in the production of her materials: ‘I live in a place where I am detached from how things are made, and I think knowing the history and the people who make these objects can give me an even deeper understanding of them.’&nbsp;

‘We have been journeying for a decade now’, Amy Lien and Enzo Camacho tell Art Basel. The artists met as undergraduate students at Harvard University. For a long time, theirs was a long-distance collaboration, with Camacho returning to his native Manila and Lien remaining on the East Coast. Nowadays, Camacho is based in Berlin and Lien in New York City, but the duo tries to spend half of their year traveling in Asia. The conceptual practice they derive from this nomadic lifestyle explores new ways of highlighting the communities they collaborate with, often via immersive installations rather than singular objects. Lien and Camacho also look at how ‘globalizing pressures influence local industries and identities’&nbsp;–&nbsp;e-commerce or real estate development being two examples they examined in recent exhibitions. ‘Many of the places we arrive at are places where people are less advantaged than us, so we try to think about journeying not only as an opportunity but also in terms of distribution: What knowledge and what resources can be redistributed between cosmopolitan centers and rural places?’ they say.&nbsp;The artists, who are represented by New York City’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1052/47-Canal" target="_blank">47 Canal</a>, view this exchange as a tool of ‘intersectional solidarity.’ ‘The idea of artistic mobility has very much become a key concern of our practice,’ they conclude.

'Both Art Basel and BMW are strong supporters of creativity and artistic exploration. Due to the current situation, the jury successfully completed its selection process digitally, and we look forward to discovering the shortlisted artists' final proposals' says Hedwig Solis Weinstein, Head of BMW Brand Cooperations, Arts &amp; Design.&nbsp;The winner of the ninth BMW Art Journey will be unveiled in June. Find out more about the artists’ work and the initiative&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/about/initiatives/bmw-art-journey" target="_blank">here</a>, and follow&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/bmwgroupculture/" target="_blank"></a>BMW Group Culture&nbsp;on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/bmwgroupculture/" target="_blank">Instagram&nbsp;</a>and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/BMWGroupCulture/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> for regular updates. <div>Top image: Jes Fan,&nbsp;Function Begets Form (detail), 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Empty Gallery, Hong Kong.&nbsp;Photo by&nbsp;Lance Brewer.</div>

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These artists investigate some of today's complex topics, from identity to e-commerce