Three artists have been shortlisted for this year's BMW Art Journey, selected from Art Basel Hong Kong's Discoveries section dedicated to emerging artists. The list includes the Los Angeles-based artist Gala Porras-Kim (Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles); Ali Kazim, who lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan (Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai); and the Berlin-based artist Zac Langdon-Pole (Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand). Each artist will be invited to submit a proposal for an artistic project that involves a journey to anywhere in the world.
The 2017 winner Astha Butail is previewing her upcoming project In the Absence of Writing—for which she is travelling to Iran, Israel, the UK and India to record traditions that are passed down through teaching and oral poetry—at the BMW lounge in the fair. The winner of the 2018 prize will be announced early this summer.