The Swatch Art Peace Hotel is open

The Swatch Art Peace Hotel Brings Art to the Bund in Shanghai

Biel / Bienne, Switzerland and Shanghai, China – November 1, 2011. Swatch Group has announced the opening today of The Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai. The world’s leading watchmaking group has lavishly restored and transformed the former South Building of the Peace Hotel into an art hotel in the heart of Shanghai’s luxury mile.

Swatch Group’s executive management team was joined for the ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning by leading representatives of the City of Shanghai authorities. The ceremony took place in the newly restored hotel itself, situated in one of the city’s most prestigious locations at the corner of Nanjing Road and the Bund.

Following a project conceived by Swatch Group, the splendid six-story red brick hotel, built at the beginning of the 20th century, has been meticulously restored, with due respect paid to the hotel’s importance as a protected cultural monument. The concept is unique in its call to bring artists into the center of one of China’s most dynamic and fast-paced cities. Two floors of the historic structure have been transformed into eighteen workshops and living quarters for artists from around the world. These spacious ateliers can be configured to suit each artist’s needs, while common dining and leisure spaces encourage the artists to meet and share their experience and projects. Living and working in a luxury environment, the artists at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel form a creative community unlike any other.

Swatch Group has appointed Singapore-based YTL Hotels to manage and to operate the Hotel and the restaurant on the premises.

Representing a broad range of disciplines, the guest artists are selected by a special committee and invited to live and work in The Swatch Art Peace Hotel for a period of up to six months. The members of the selection committee are: Nayla Hayek and Nick Hayek, Chair and CEO of the Swatch Group; Esther Grether, Board Member of the Swatch Group; François-Henri Pinault, Chairman and CEO of PPR; Mikhail Kusnirovich, Chairman, Committee of the strategy development of GUM; Tan Sri Francis Yeoh, Chairman, YTL Group and George Clooney, actor.

Known initially as the Palace and in later years as the South Building of the Peace Hotel, The Swatch Art Peace Hotel’s new name reinforces the already strong connection between Swatch and Art. For more than 25 years the popular Swiss brand has worked closely with leading artists to create a series of extraordinary «Swatch Art Special» wristwatches. By treating Swatch as «a canvas on the wrist», these artists help art escape from museums and jump to the streets and the wrists of ordinary people.

To help celebrate today’s opening of The Swatch Art Peace Hotel and introduce the Hotel’s new role to the people of Shanghai, Swatch organized a day-long Street Painting event. The Swiss watchmaker set up 38 large canvases at intervals along the Bund, and provided participating artists with brushes, paint and all the tools necessary to make a work of art. Throughout the day, the artists, school children, art students and members of the public made art in the street—Swatch Art at the Bund.

Contact

The Swatch Group Ltd
Seevorstadt 6
Biel / Bienne (Switzerland)
Phone: +41 32 343 68 11
E-mail: please use our «Contact Form»

Fact Sheet: PDF Document (230 KB)
Press Release: PDF Document (193 KB)
For our Chinese speaking friends: PDF Document (521 KB)
For our Spanish speaking friends: PDF Document (544 KB)

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The Swatch Art Peace Hotel is open