Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

Art at heart

Want to check into a hotel for culture’s sake?
A growing number think works of art woo travellers’ hearts, says Tamara Thiessen

Isn’t it most women’s idea of a perfect man?” asks Otto Wiesenthal, standing before the painting of ‘The Headless Man’ in the Freud Suite of the Altstadt Hotel in Vienna.

The idiosyncratic collector of furniture and art has made his small hotel a showcase for contemporary Austrian painters.

“Every room has its own art piece which I think influences our guests in a positive way, and makes the hotel an inspiring place. Every picture has a story.”

Forget museums and galleries; these days you can steep yourself in a city’s cultural life from the moment you enter your hotel.

For Gabriela Benz, the manager of Le Méridien Hotel in Vienna, the neon-lit installations in the lobby are as vital as the furniture, music and lighting. “We want to promote art and bring Viennese culture to our guests,” she says.

Vienna’s sister hotels in Hamburg and Turin have all been given a strong artistic bent under the label ‘Art+Tech’. Decorated with works by local artists, sculptors and designers, they are as much exhibition spaces as a place to rest your weary head.

Benz says her hotel was the first ever to receive a state award for its support of the arts: “We have areas in the hotel dedicated to different art institutions such as the Austrian Theatre Museum and the Secession. We exhibit blossoming young artists, and we change the space every five weeks. It’s also open 24 hours so guests can even come and see art at midnight.”

A few blocks away and in another hotel, the artworks take you back rather than forward, and give you a gripping sense of Vienna’s history.

Decked along the corridors of the Sacher Hotel’s lobby are 15 splendid gilt-framed oil paintings – still lives, landscapes, portraits – many of them by post-Impressionist masters.

“We are a kind of gallery of traditional 19th century Austrian art,” says Elisabeth Gürtler, owner of the 130 year-old hotel.

At Villa Kennedy, the Rocco Forte hotel in Frankfurt, the eye-catching oeuvres are as varied as the décor, but matched accordingly.

“More than 80 per cent of the art is German – our philosophy is that we belong to the country and city we are in. Displaying this art is an important part of that,” says General Manager Georg Plesser.

A well-hung hotel is not a new concept. Many historic institutions such as the Ritz in Paris and London have prized collections amassed by their original art-loving owners.

What has changed is that the concept of tapping into local artists to give a hotel a cultural boost has, for many, become de rigueur.

Even an old dame like the Sacher has updated its look with both refurbishments and some select pieces of modern art.

“The old paintings are an important part of reminiscing about the past,” says Gürtler, “but you also have to keep fresh.” She caused minor outrage among regulars by putting a contemporary painting of a dog – a novel take on the beloved pygmy bull terriers of original owner Anna Sacher – into the Rote Bar Restaurant.

But she’s unrepentant, saying: “I feel art is a very important part of getting to know a place; its culture, its history, its present.”

Brand designs

Art also sells. Few major cities are without a flood of budget to middle range ‘Art Hotels’ these days.

The Art’otels in Budapest and Berlin make no bones about the success of the brand. Each is devoted to an individual artist, living or dead. In the case of Berlin City Centre West that means prints, pictures and photos by Andy Warhol; in Budapest, lithographs, paintings and sculptures by American artist Donald Sultan.

In the Fox Hotel in Copenhagen, funding from Volkswagen allowed 21 artists (including German illustrator Birgit Amadori, and Norwegian whiz kid Kim Hiorthøy) to set to work creating a bizarre blend of ultra-cool room designs. Described as “image directors” and “brand managers”, these graphic and graffiti artists produced rooms that are transforming as much as they are transformed.

Art from the heart

Is some art better than none? It certainly adds a new dimension, but for some, art is meaningless unless it’s personal.

The Propeller Island City Lodge in Berlin gets its name from the recording label of owner Lars Stroschen, a 45 year-old musician and photographer who progressively turned rooms of his studio into flats to fund his music projects. He made all the pictures, sculptures and interior elements in the resulting hotel himself, which he calls a “total artwork”. “Staying there,” he says, “is like living in a work of art.”

While some hotels are dedicated to just one artist, others are testimony to a life-long love affair with the arts in general.

The collection of 400 items at the luxurious One Aldwych in London is clearly a powerful aesthetic choice by owner Gordon Campbell Gray. The art is there because of his passion. It’s not a marketing ploy, it’s art from the heart.

Similarly, the Arte Luise Kunsthotel in Berlin started out as an arts laboratory; a place where artists and friends of artists could live and work, before opening as a hotel in 1999.

The renovated palace has come a long way, but its connection with the arts is still primal. Fifty different German and

FR » Dans les règles de l’Art

De plus en plus de personnes pensent que les oeuvres d’art touchent la sensibilité des voyageurs. Pour Gabriela Benz, manager de l’Hôtel Méridien à Vienne, les installations illuminées au néon dans le lobby sont aussi essentielles que le mobilier, la musique ou l’éclairage. “Nous voulons promouvoir l’art et amener nos clients à découvrir la culture de Vienne,” explique-t-elle.

Un hôtel où l’art a sa place n’est pas un nouveau concept. De nombreuses institutions historiques comme le Ritz à Paris et à Londres ont toujours mis en avant leurs collections, acquises par leurs premiers propriétaires eux mêmes passionnés d’art.

Ce qui a changé, c’est le concept, qui consiste aujourd’hui à présenter des artistes de l’endroit pour donner à l’hôtel une note culturelle devenue de rigueur, pour de plus en plus d’acteurs du secteur.

A la Villa Kennedy, l’hôtel de Rocco Forte à Francfort, les oeuvres qui attirent le regard sont aussi variées que le décor et elles s’y fondent parfaitement.

“Plus de 80 pour cent des pièces proviennent d’artistes allemands – notre philosophie étant que nous appartenons au pays et à la ville dans laquelle nous sommes installés. Montrer cette production artistique fait partie intégrante de ce processus,” explique le Directeur Général Georg Plesser.

L’Art fait vendre aussi. La plupart des grandes villes à l’heure actuelle s’orientent dans le créneau des ‘Hôtels d’Art’ de catégorie moyenne. Au Fox Hotel à Copenhagen, 21 artistes ont créé des gammes de chambres designs, ultra-cool qui transforment à la hauteur de leur transformation.

Mais pour certains, l’art n’a pas de sens à moins d’être une création personnelle.

Le Propeller Island City Lodge à Berlin doit son nom au label de la maison de production du propriétaire Lars Stroschen, un musicien et photographe de 45 ans qui a réalisé toutes les images, les sculptures et les aménagements intérieurs de son hôtel. Résultat : un lieu qu’il désigne comme un “total artwork”. “Séjourner ici,” confie-t-il, “c’est comme vivre dans une oeuvre d’art.”

international artists have created signature rooms, and there’s a gallery on the ground floor with changing exhibitions.

The Urban Hotel in Madrid houses a collection of Egyptian Pharaonic art more than 4,500 years old. “Every room and public space holds archaeological pieces from different cultures and periods – Chinese, Hindi and Buddhist,” says Jordi Clos Llombart, President of Derby Hotels.

Llombart has filled the small group of three, four and five star hotels in Madrid, Barcelona and London with art and artefacts he has gathered since 1935. His Villa Real in Madrid has paintings by Antoni Tàpies, one of Spain’s most famous living artists. The Gran Derby and Derby Hotels in Barcelona boast a rich collection of original paintings and lithographs from the likes of Picasso, Dali, Miro and Guinovart.

Llombart believes art elevates his hotels to an extraordinary realm, adding that most of them are “discrete in size but great in art”.

NL » In de kunst gelogeerd

Kunst in hotels, je ziet het steeds vaker. Voor Gabriela Benz, manager van Le Méridien in Wenen, zijn de neonverlichte installaties in de lobby net zo belangrijk als de rest van de inrichting. “Wij willen de kunst promoten en onze gasten Weense cultuur voorschotelen”, vertelt ze.

Het hotel als kunstkamer is geen nieuw concept. Ook historische gebouwen als het Ritz in Parijs en Londen beschikken dankzij hun oorspronkelijke, kunstgezinde eigenaars over een rijke collectie.

Wel nieuw is de keuze voor plaatselijke artiesten, om het hotel een culturele opkikker te geven.

In Villa Kennedy, het Rocco Forte-hotel in Frankfurt, gaan de in het oog springende kunstwerken mooi op in het al even gevarieerde interieur errond.

“Meer dan 80% van de kunst is Duits, want volgens ons moet een hotel de sfeer van het land en de stad uitademen. Vandaar de aandacht voor kunst van eigen bodem”, vertelt manager Georg Plesser.

En kunst verkoopt. Bijna alle grote steden hebben ondertussen wel enkele budget- en middenklasse “kunsthotels”. In het Fox Hotel in Kopenhagen, bijvoorbeeld, maakten 21 artiesten van elke kamer een unieke creatie.

Maat het kan ook persoonlijker.

De Propeller Island City Lodge in Berlijn dankt zijn naam aan het platenlabel van eigenaar Lars Stroschen. Deze 45-jarige muzikant en fotograaf zorgde zelf voor alle foto’s, beelden en interieurelementen in zijn hotel, dat hij omschrijft als gesammtkunst, een allesomvattend kunstwerk. “Hier verblijven”, zo stelt hij, “is zoals leven in een kunstwerk.”

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