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Item: Prova Car

Panamarenko

1967

Object, 95 x 200 x 290 cm.
Materials: tin, cellophane

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp / Collection Flemish Community (Inv. no. BKS002).

Prova-Car is a sort of human, poetic version of the Formula-1 racing car. It conjures up images of old, once revolutionary technological prototypes. With works like this Prova-Car, Panamarenko refers to the image of the engineer-artist. At the same time, he relativises the image. Of course, Panamarenko’s ‘inventions’ are not intended to actually work: they are artworks first and foremost. In Panamarenko’s work, technique is a slave to poetry.

"Nuvolari was the best racecar driver in the world before the war.  He just floored it, never braked.  I remember how he wore a kind of pilot's headgear seated in his big 'prova', his test car.  (...)  After WWII the Formula 1 cars got too fast, and then he indeed had to brake."  - Panamarenko

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About M HKA / Mission Statement

The M HKA is a museum for contemporary art, film and visual culture in its widest sense. It is an open place of encounter for art, artists and the public. The M HKA aspires to play a leading role in Flanders and to extend its international profile by building upon Antwerp's avant-garde tradition. The M HKA bridges the relationship between artistic questions and wider societal issues, between the international and the regional, artists and public, tradition and innovation, reflection and presentation. Central here is the museum's collection with its ongoing acquisitions, as well as related areas of management and research.

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