Recently, I have been involved in work around the ‘cultural tourism’ agenda, examining the economic and social benefits that cultural events can bring as part of destination management. Preceding this by many years, I was involved in a managerial capacity on a number of projects, which I realised later were test cases for how this collaboration might be achieved practically. One of these projects was at the Hotel Delle Nazioni in Jesolo Lido, Venice.
The owners appointed me as artist/curator to design an entire themed floor of nine separate rooms in the hotel. I selected seven artists from the UK, Germany, Italy and Turkey with the assistance of Dominic Berning Fine Art, London, UK. One room was designated to the architects restoring the hotel and I designed and made the final room myself.
Working at with the warm end of the colour spectrum, the interior of my room was the expression of a permanently hot August day. Continuing my interest in site-specificity, the bed was constructed from a wrecked pier washed up outside the hotel as driftwood the previous winter.
The other images featured here show rooms from Jane Watt, Martin Richman and Leo. The rooms were available for hire as a special feature of the hotel and were finally decommissioned in 2010.
Photographs: Jorge Weigand and Alan Rogers.