Swatch Art Peace Hotel: A Hotel for Art’s Sake
The Swatch Art Peace Hotel doesn't feel like your average hotel. Across the street from the Fairmont Peace Hotel, the restored interiors of this turn-of-the-century property have the same antique charm as its neighbour, but there is a distinctively focused energy inside. The difference lies on the second and third floors where the sleek, minimalist ateliers of visiting contemporary artists line the halls.
The Swatch Art Peace Hotel will only have a total of seven rooms and suites for guests, and it's not just for exclusivity's sake. Most of the property is committed to the production of art by visiting artists, providing them with both a place to stay and to work right on The Bund. The Swatch Art Peace Hotel is a workshop first and a hotel second.
Nick Hayek, CEO of the Swatch Group, came up with the idea after hunting for a storefront for the Swiss watch brand. “When I was walking down the Bund I saw this fantastic, historic building,” he says. “We proposed a creative concept to the Chinese group who owns the building, and I was able to convince them to let us restore the hotel and make it a place for art and artists from China and around the world.” As the magazine was going to print, 18 visiting artists were living on the property, pursuing projects in almost every medium from film and music to painting and sculpture.
Artists at the hotel are chosen by a selection committee composed of Hayek and other executives from Swatch and its partner companies in the property as well as Swatch’s brand spokesman George Clooney. In detailing how the committee chooses artists, Hayek says, “The criteria is that we, the Selection Committee, should like it. We decide according to our tastes. We want to make this very emotional, so it’s the stomach that decides before the brain. We don’t want an institution with clear rules; we don’t want to be dogmatic. We are not looking for the next big genius; it’s the work that is important.”
True to this spirit, Swatch retains no rights to the works produced by artists during their stay at the hotel. The only request is that artists leave a “trace” of their works before they leave. Of course, possible collaborations on Swatch products aren’t entirely ruled out either. Hayek notes, “For more than 25 years the brand has worked closely with artists to create works of art for ‘the canvas on the wrist’. This very successful collaboration continues today and is at the heart of the Swatch Group Art Hotel concept.”
Two visiting artists at the time of this article, French multi-media artist Alexandre Joly and Chinese video artist Ye Linghan, represented the range and depth of the kinds of projects art lovers can expect at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel. Joly’s studio was awash with several projects, all of them in various stages of development. When speaking about his work, he moved quickly from one idea to another with an indefatigable enthusiasm. Around one area of the studio, there were sculptures made out of cardboard and piezos speakers, small cylindrical pieces of metal that vibrate when excited by an electric current.
In another area, a spider web of cords springing from strobe lights, effects pedals, grounding stations, microphones, amplifiers and even a guzheng, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument, all centred on a single focus, what appeared to be a tiny crane. Joly explained that it’s a microphone used to pick up magnetic fields. Springing into action, he began a demonstration of his newest project, flipping on strobe lights and amplifiers, steadying microphones until a strange ethereal static reverberated through the room. “I start with nothing, then add to it one object at a time, feeding the machine,” Joly says.
A vestige of Joly’s art was already on display in the halls leading through the artist’s workspaces. A triangular array of piezos speakers mounted on the wall projected a low hooting noise that Joly revealed to be the sound of bullfrogs, a result of a previous collaboration with a group of scientists in Chengdu studying the amphibians.
Where Joly’s visions moved between many projects, Ye Linghan’s work centred on a single project with tremendous focus. As he had only recently settled in his studio, Ye preferred to display his previous works, rather than discuss his newest project, a retelling of an ancient Chinese fable.
One work entitled “Osedax”, a type of deep sea worm known for feeding on the bones of whales, showed the recurring vision of a whale in decay in a succession of surreal animations utilising stark, at times gory, images. Another work entitled “One Part of Narrative Film-3” utilised stop-animation to show an 18th century European-styled still life in a time lapse of decay. Slowly but surely, the table full of objects disintegrated until there was almost nothing left. Producing this work was a painstaking process that Ye says took months working 10 hours a day.
Although the colourful sights of the Bund and the vistas of Lujiazui are just steps away, Ye had little say about the scenery, responding only that he was grateful for the ability to complete his work. Walking out of his studio, Ye had already hung up a calendar planning out his next two months at the hotel. He explains, “Artists have pressure, too. We have sleepless nights like everyone else.”
