London. Japanese artist Meiro Koizumi will investigate social and historical taboos in a new work for the BMW Tate Live: Performance Room on 13 June. BMW Tate Live: Performance Room is a pioneering strand of live, online performances simultaneously seen by international audiences across the globe at www.youtube.com/user/tate/tatelive. BMW Tate Live is a four-year partnership between BMW and Tate, which focuses on performance, interdisciplinary art and curating digital space. 

Meiro Koizumi is known for video work that examines generations of Japanese culture and history. Some of the darkest moments, such as the Japanese involvement in WWII, are recurring subjects in his work. For example, "Defect in Vision" 2011 features a Japanese couple discussing a forthcoming holiday. Both are blind. This fact seems unusual when we see the husband's death in a fighter plane interspersed throughout the film.   

The artist lives and works in Japan. He studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Previous exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013), the Art Space, Sydney (2011), and the Mori Art Museum,Tokyo (2009). His two screen video installation, "Theatre Dreams of a Beautiful Afternoon" 2010-11, won the Grand Prize at the 15th Asian Art Biennale.

Now in its second year, new commissions for BMW Tate Live 2013 include those online for BMW Tate Live: Performance Room and live performances at Tate Modern for BMW Tate Live: Performance Events. BMW Tate Live is curated by Catherine Wood, Curator, Contemporary Art and Performance, Tate and Capucine Perrot, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern. 

BMW Tate Live Performance Room

Audiences are invited to enter the online BMW Tate Live Performance Room via www.youtube.com/user/tate/tatelive at 20.00 hrs in the UK and exactly the same moment across time zones on the specified dates - 15.00 hrs on the East Coast of America, 21.00 hrs in mainline Europe and 23.00 hrs in Russia. The global audience is encouraged to chat with other viewers via social media channels during the performance and to put questions to the artist or curator following it using their Twitter, Facebook or Google+ accounts. To get the latest updates follow @TateLive, using #BMWTateLive; Tate Facebook or Tate Google+. 

BMW Tate Live
BMW Tate Live is a four year partnership between BMW and Tate that features innovative live performances and events including live web broadcast, in-gallery performance, seminars and workshops. BMW Tate Live aims to reach an international audience through new forms of art, addressing audiences changing needs, tastes and interests in art. The initiative creates a new space for collaboration and a programme that encompasses performance, film, sound, installation and learning - areas where artists can take greater risks and experiment freely. The programme investigates transformation in all its guises and aims to provoke debate on how art can affect intellectual, social and physical change. More information at www.tate.org.uk/bmwtatelive.

BMW's Cultural Commitment
For over 40 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in more than 100 cultural partnerships worldwide. The focus of this long-term commitment to culture is modern and contemporary art, jazz and classical music as well as architecture and design. BMW has worked with artists such as Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Eliasson, Jeff Koons, Zubin Metha, Daniel Barenboim and Anna Netrebko and commissioned architects such as Karl Schwanzer, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelb(l)au. In London, BMW in partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra, hosts the BMW LSO Open Air Classics, a yearly live concert free of charge in Trafalgar Square, and supports Frieze Art Fair. The BMW Group takes absolute creative freedom in all the cultural activities it is involved in for granted - as this is just as essential for groundbreaking artistic work as it is for major innovations in a successful business. www.bmwgroup.com/culture and www.bmwgroup.com/culture/overview

The BMW Group
The BMW Group is the leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles in the world with its BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 28 production and assembly facilities in 13 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.

In 2012, the BMW Group sold about 1.85 million cars and more than 117,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the financial year 2012 was euro 7.82 billion on revenues amounting to euro 76.85 billion. At 31 December 2012, the BMW Group had a workforce of 105,876 employees. 

The success of the BMW Group has always been built on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy. As a result of its efforts, the BMW Group has been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last eight years. 

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For questions please contact:

Almut Stollberg

BMW Group Corporate and Governmental Affairs

Spokesperson Cultural Engagement

E-mail: presse@bmw.de

Jeanette Ward

Senior Press Officer, Tate
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7887 4942, E-mail: pressoffice@tate.org.uk

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