This one-off BMW i8 is wearing a futuristic Italian paint job...from 1909

Garage Italia turns to Futurism to create a different sort of BMW art car

At first glance, this is just a BMW i8 wearing 20-inch turbine 625 wheels and an eye-popping vinyl wrap.

And, truth be told, that's exactly what this thing is. The so-called "BMW i8 Futurism Edition" is still interesting for at least two reasons, though: One, it's the work of Lapo Elkann's Turin-based Garage Italia Customs outfit, and two, the vinyl wrap covering nearly every non-glass square inch of its exterior is an adaptation of a work by Italian Futurist painter Giacomo Balla. The overall work is vaguely remniscent of Jeff Koon's BMW M3 GT2 art car, at least where palatte and intensity is concerned, but (aside from the fact that this isn't an "official" BMW art car), the big difference is that Balla's work, "Street Light," dates all the way back to 1909.

Futurism, for the uninitiated, was an artistic movement that sprang into being alongside the early 20th century's technological advancements; it was enamored with industry and mechanization and embraced modern artifacts (factories, trains, airplanes and, especially, automobiles) as liberating, invigorating manifestations of social progress

Many of Balla's more abstract works tackle that oh-so-German concept of dynamism (in some cases explicitly). That is, he sought to translate movement of people, animals or machines through space and time into a painting on two-dimensional canvas, usuallywith trippy, high-energy results. Plus, many of his paintings incorporate automobiles,albeit in fragmented, fractalized forms. Toss in the fact that this year marks the 50th year of BMW in Italy and it would almost be a crime not to plaster an adaptation of a work by one of Futurism's pioneers on one of the German automaker's cutting-edge products.

To be sure, there's an attempt to create a cute narrative here: BMW's i8 as progressive mobility solution/car of the future, Balla's "Street Light" as a compelling representation of a revolutionary technology of the past, the Italy-Germany connection, a natural synergy and so on and so forth.

But we're fine forgetting about all that noise for the moment and appreciating this car as a striking one-off -- and using its existence as an excuse to inject a little Futurism into your day.

Save for the vinyl wrap, this is a stock i8.