Art Hotel

The «Art Hotel» has eight rooms and a suite. Each of them is made a work of art to live in. Especially business people who travel a lot enjoy staying in rooms which are not like the hotel rooms they know from their visits throughout the world. We do everything to make our guest feel at home and not at an anonymous hotel. Televisions are available on request.

The rooms

ROOM 1 – ALBERT MERZ, BERLIN
Merz’s work is ironically ambiguous. The reproduction of a huge medieval Bible stretches opened across one entire corner of the room. A few varnished coloured areas as well as a labyrinth of lines reach out from the Bible along the walls. A sequence of erotic miniature figure drawings has been added at eyelevel. When asked about his idea, Albert Merz commented that a copy of the Bible can always be found in any normal hotel room. This is – for the artist – an inconsistent irony to what a hotel room otherwise symbolises – namely freedom of space for unusual encounters and relationships.

ROOM 2 – GERDA STEINER AND JÖRG LENZLINGER, USTER
The walls are covered with a wallpaper pattern originating from the “Falling Garden” works at the 50th Biennale in Vienna. A small fountain with a ballerina and swan is positioned on a table in one corner of the room. The liquid in the fountain evaporates over time, forming colourful crystals that will eventually overgrow the fountain, the table and the floor. Steiner/Lenzlinger cultivate artificial and crystalline plants, cover walls with animated pictures and possess a disarming charm which is reflected in the Teufelhof room.

ROOM 3 – JÜRG HÄUSLER, BASEL
A partly transparent construction of painted and inscribed wooden elements with background lighting stands before of a rounded corner of the room. In front of it stands a white iron sculpture entitled “Eva“. A second focus is set by a blackboard inscribed in chalk with a copper sheet frame. These sculptural elements are linked together by sketches in different colours, which were applied directly to the wall using stencils. By connecting the material and graphic elements, Häusler has created a work of art that is ideally suited for this room and that lives from the exciting attraction between the contrasting materials.

ROOM 4 – KARIN VIDENSKY, BASEL
With Vidensky’s poetic work one is only aware of an airy tangle of finely spun threads during the daytime. Transparent elements of polished and carved Plexiglas are fixed to these threads. It is difficult to decipher their different shapes. And when at last it gets dark, the press of a button starts a fantastic interplay between light and shadow. Depending on the source of light, moths or fish move through a labyrinth of branches or rather roots, algae or corals. One discovers mussels, snails, flowers and leaves in finely engraved vividness. This is where you can dream with your eyes open.

ROOM 5 - PAUL LOUIS MEIER, LUCERNE
Upon entering this room, one initially stands facing a two-piece, partly mirrored installation. There are two life-sized mirror-imaged figures standing opposite each other. The mirror incorporates the viewers’ own reflection directly into this piece of artwork. The second part of the work is a small bronze statue with its own mirror that is mounted on the wall opposite the first, larger mirror. In this way Paul Louis Meier invites the viewer to reflect on people and spaces – not just about the people in this hotel room, but about the anthroposphere as a whole.

ROOM 6 – ANNA RUDOLF, AMSTERDAM
At the first glance this room seems to have been very sparsely designed artistically. One is more likely to sense the works than to perceive them intellectually. This reduction creates a fascinating situation, because Anna Rudolf’s intention is to address the emotions. Only as time passes does one discover the stripes of plastic film protruding from the wall in different arcs and widths and engraved with poetic fragments of text. And one is more likely to sense that one wall is painted in a delicate shade of blue than to perceive the colour in optical terms. The strength of Anna Rudolf’s work lies in the way she addresses her viewers on the emotional level.

ROOM 7 – CORINA BEZZOLA, BASEL
The mood of this room is shaped by its wooden roof structure. Corina Bezzola picked up on their predefined angles and used adhesive tapes and strips of felt to extend the angles along the walls, by wrapping some individual beams with felt material and “pulling them out” along the walls. These sections of felt are complemented by adhesive tapes which themselves also build areas thanks to their parallel arrangement or provide new references to the ceiling construction as autonomous lines. The artist has also made some changes to the stairwell and the entrance area to Room 7 which give an idea of the work to expect in the art room.

ROOM 8 - DUMENG SECCHI, SILS MARIA
A length of red plastic runs through the room in such a way that it runs parallel to the walls and sloping roofs and then “leaves“ the room by the window after crossing the room one more time. Dumeng Secchi has realised a tricky technical task here with this apparently simple action. Because every change in direction taken by the length of plastic is precisely by metal rods held by cords attached to the walls. At night a light behind the length of plastic envelops the room in an intimate red light.

ROOM 9 - LEA ACHERMANN, LUCERNE
This suite has two levels. Under the sloping ceiling of the upper level Lea Achermann has painted a two-piece work in the form of two anthropomorphic flowers which can each only be seen from a specific point in the room. When entering the room one sees a lily stretching across the entire depth of the room with all its nooks and crannies in walls and the ceiling. And only when lying in bed can one see another flower. However, from any position is the room the only visible element is weaving colourful lines that don’t result in a specific picture, but remain captivating with their artistic mode of flow.

The art hotel's previous artists