This week, BMW Italia, in collaboration with Garage Italia Customs, revealed what some may consider a new BMW Art Car: the BMW i8 Futurismo Edition. While the creation of the two companies didn’t include any new work from a world-renowed artist, it still looks amazing and will definitely attract a lot of attention, wherever it will go. Today, BMW published a video showing us how the car was put together.
It all started with a Crystal White BMW i8 that was then just wrapped in the psychedelic colors you saw earlier this week hugging the new-age shapes of the plug-in hybrid sportscar from Munich. The process was a tedious one, because the print couldn’t be done in just one big cutout. Therefore, various pieces had to be put together and considering the unique color patterns used for the i8, they had to be stitched together to the millimeter.
In case the design looks familiar, that’s because it is replicating the “Lampada ad Arco” painting of Italian artist Giacomo Balla, which is now hanging inside the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The original painting was portraying a street lamp powered by electricity under moonlight, a motif found onboard the i8 too, which can run in pure EV mode for about 20 miles.
The car was put together to celebrate 50 years of BMW history in Italy and will run in the Mille Miglia 2016 following the BMW 328 driven by Sergio Solero, President and CEO of BMW Italy. This year’s edition will kick off tomorrow, in Brescia and will cover 1,000 miles, as is the tradition, going through Rome and then back again, showcasing as many timeless classics as you can take.
