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

Exhibition at Geneva’s Cité du Temps details Shanghai’s colorful past, the Peace Hotel’s remarkable renovation, and a unique operational concept.

Biel / Bienne and Geneva, Switzerland, and Shanghai, China, June, 2009. The Cité du Temps in Geneva is hosting an exhibition dedicated entirely to the renovation of the South Building of the historic Peace Hotel, located at Bund 19 at the intersection of Nanjing Road and the Bund, Shanghai’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».

Under the leadership of Swatch Group, the Swatch Art Peace Hotel project presents a unique concept blending a retail environment with a hotel where only artists live and work.

The Swatch Art Peace Hotel will also feature retail, gallery and restaurant space open to the public. It is expected that the restoration work will be completed in spring of 2010, ahead of the opening of Shanghai EXPO 2010. When it has been fully and conscientiously restored, the Swatch Art Peace Hotel will 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 more than a century ago in 1906, today enjoys protected status as a cultural monument. The Swatch Art Peace Hotel project calls for the building to be restored by experts in the field of historic preservation. They will carry out their tasks paying due respect to its cultural heritage and its status as one of Shanghai’s most significant and well known structures. The building’s facade and characteristic architectural features, including period ceilings and pillar decorations, will be restored to their original splendor; its interior will be adapted to accommodate a broad range of functions in accordance with its role as a world-class center of contemporary art, culture and hospitality where art is the ultimate luxury.

The Swatch Art Peace Hotel project calls for gifted artists from around the world, including China, to live and work for a limited time in apartment / workshops. Between fifty and a hundred artists each year will be invited to discover Shanghai, establish contact with each other, and to work on parallel or joint projects of their choosing. The variably residency times will facilitate maximum interaction among the artists. A commission will select a range of artists from a range of creative disciplines and will also consider the artists’ local arts community to ensure that a broad spectrum of nationalities is represented. Upon their selection, the artists will be offered a chance to participate in the vibrant life of this unique creative and cultural environment. Exhibitions showcasing their work will be displayed at the hotel’s dedicated venues.

The Swatch Art Peace Hotel’s top floor will host a multimedia space that can be used for movies, concerts, press conferences and various other public and private events. A restaurant is also planned for this floor. On the roof terrace, guests will be able to take in a panoramic view of the city from the bar. One of the building's iconic domed towers is being restored to include an exclusive setting for quiet candle-light dinners.

The retail space on the ground floor will include a Swatch Boutique which will feature not only a wide range of the brand’s newest and most popular products but spaces for special events and art exhibitions. It will convey the core values of the brand: emotion, joy of life, innovation and positive provocation. There will also be boutiques featuring the products of the Swatch Group’s most prestigious brands, including Breguet, Blancpain and Omega. Their design will be consistent with the period décor and cultural ambience of the Swatch Art Peace Hotel. New furnishings will be carefully selected to blend with the existing fittings, maintaining a conscious link to the building’s heritage.

The Swatch Art Peace Hotel is expected to draw artists and visitors from around the world and to become the focus of considerable attention from the Chinese and international media. Artists and brands alike will benefit from their exposure to an international public at the most prestigious location in Shanghai, and it is hoped the new centre will serve as an open door to the world, a permanent invitation to engage in cultural exchange. The Swatch Art Peace Hotel project thus represents both a unique cultural heritage and a remarkable statement of Shanghai’s emerging role as one of the most exciting and influential of world cities today.

The Swatch Art Peace Hotel exhibition at the Cité du Temps

The Cité du Temps’s Swatch Art Peace Hotel exhibition features a collection of photographs representing life and architecture in modern and old Shanghai. There are also illustrations of the hotel’s design concepts along with texts about the project and a scale model of the hotel itself.

The exhibition opens on July 8th in Geneva.