Swatch Group introduces the restoration and unique operational concept at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai

Exhibition at Baselworld details Shanghai’s colourful past, the Peace Hotel’s remarkable renovation , and a unique operational concept

Biel / Bienne and Basel, Switzerland, and Shanghai, China, March 2010. The Swatch Group is presenting an exhibition at Baselworld in the Hall of Dreams from the 17th to the 19th of March, dedicated to its renovation of the South Building of the historic Peace Hotel, located on Shanghai’s legendary Bund, the city’s former financial district and today its most famous landmark. The Swatch Group is working closely with its joint venture partner, Jin Jiang International, China’s leading hotel and travel group. The restored hotel will re-open as the Swatch Art Peace Hotel later this year.

Under the leadership of Swatch Group, the Swatch Art Peace Hotel project’s unique operational concept blends a retail environment with a hotel where only artists live and work

The extensive renovation of the Swatch Art Peace Hotel is slated to be completed in time for Shanghai EXPO 2010. Its retail space will open in mid-May and there will be a grand opening of the completely renovated hotel on the 1st of August.

When it has been fully and conscientiously restored, the Swatch Art Peace Hotel will start to welcome the arts and working artists from around the world to its splendid venues and become once again a focal point of Shanghai’s vibrant cultural life.

The South Building of the Peace Hotel, built in 1908, enjoys protected status as a cultural monument. The Swatch Art Peace Hotel project has called on the skills of experts in the field of historic preservation who are paying due respect to the hotel’s heritage and its status as one of Shanghai’s best known structures.

The Swatch Art Peace Hotel project invites gifted artists from around the world to live and work for a limited time in apartment/workshops. Artists from a range of creative disciplines are to be selected by a commission to ensure that a broad spectrum of nationalities is represented.

Selected artists are offered a chance to create in this unique environment with exhibitions showcasing their work at the hotel. They will be asked to leave a «trace» of their art at the hotel when they have completed their residencies.

The retail space on the ground floor includes a Swatch Boutique designed to convey the core values of the brand: emotion, joy of life, innovation and positive provocation. The Swatch Group’s most prestigious brands, Breguet, Blancpain and Omega, are also represented with boutiques of their own, featuring the period décor and cultural ambience of the Swatch Art Peace Hotel.

The Swatch Art Peace Hotel exhibition at the Baselworld

The exhibition can be viewed between March 17th and March 19th in the Plaza in the Hall of Dreams at Basel’s Exhibition Square.