The V&A explores the cultural effects of new technologies and design in its major spring exhibition The Future Starts Here, opening on 12 May until 4 November 2018. Visitors to the museum will also be able to take a seat in Volkswagen’s autonomous concept car SEDRIC and experience how it interacts with passengers.
This year’s major exhibition at the V&A, “The Future Starts Here”, explores the power of design in shaping the world of tomorrow. Featuring more than 100 objects, many of which have never been on public display, the exhibition represents a new picture of an advancing future and includes specially commissioned works by Miranda July, Kei Kreutler as well as the interaction design studios Stamen and Tellart. The exhibition explores the impact these objects may have on the body, the home, politics, cities, and the planet and provides visitors with a series of ethical and speculative questions to connect the subject matter to the choices that everyone has in their everyday lives.
The Volkswagen Group is proud to partner with the V&A in supporting this exhibition. As part of this cooperation the exhibition’s curators Rory Hyde and Mariana Pestana and future specialists from the Volkswagen Group Future Center Europe in Potsdam completed a creative dialogue on the future of mobility. The result of the exchange of ideas is the presentation of the Volkswagen SEDRIC (Self-Driving Car). This concept vehicle shows Volkswagen’s concrete vision for sustainable and autonomous future mobility, which at the same time offers an innovative interaction be- tween humans and machines. Visitors of the exhibition will be able to gain an insight into various, mutually reciprocal scenarios, giving them an immediate idea about the perspectives underlying these technological uses.
“We are extremely grateful to Volkswagen for their generous support of this exhibition. With their focus on developing sustainable mobility for the future, there is great synergy with some of the exhibition’s key themes. I hope that all of our visitors will enjoy the driverless car simulation provided by Volkswagen within the exhibition”, says Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A.
“The exhibition presents to the public how closely our present time and the future are aligned. Moving beyond just the presentation, this show also describes the creative options and possibili- ties that have become available for our present and future lives. As a partner of the V&A, we particularly endorse this innovative hands-on approach, showing how closely art, technology and society are joined”, comments Benita von Maltzahn, Director Global Corporate Citizenship at Volkswagen Group.
With the support of the exhibition “The Future Starts Here” the Volkswagen Group builds upon its ongoing cooperation with the V&A. Among the jointly realized projects was the multi-layered ex- hibition project “The Engineering Season”, which Volkswagen had helped to realize in 2016. The support for the V&A and its works demonstrates Volkswagen’s commitment to foster a forward- looking and sustainable society. Together with its cultural partners, the Group strives to pave the way for pioneering art initiatives and cultural education programs and to provide platforms that help to generate creative momentum as this is crucial for the growing of social values within a so- ciety.
The Volkswagen Group’s engagement with the arts and culture intends to attract a large audi- ence for cultural ideas and thus includes collaborations with international institutions and vision- aries. Further to the substantial support for the V&A, Volkswagen is also a long-term partner of the Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Volkswagen Group of America maintains a multi-year partnership with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) and MoMA PS1 in New York. The Volkswagen Group China has successfully established a wide-ranging cultural promotion program in the world’s most populated country.
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