Carlo Giordanetti
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Carlo Giordanetti was named Creative Director of
Swatch Ltd. in October 2012, responsible
for a unified brand identity
across product, communications and store
design. He is also charged with developing The
Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai as a strategic element of the overall brand program. He comes to Swatch
from Montblanc (2007-2012), where
he served as Creative Director for all product groups and achieved notable success. Previously, as Co-Founder and Creative Director
of Brand DNA (2000-2007), he specialized in the development of branding concepts and brand (re)positioning
in the luxury goods market.
Mr. Giordanetti also brings extensive experience at Swatch to his new role. For ten years (1987-1992 and
1995-2000) he served in a variety
of positions, including Vice President,
Marketing, contributing actively
to numerous projects involving art, brand-building events,
new product development
and the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games. He was also a member of the team that founded both the Milan and New York design labs
of Swatch. From 1992-1995 Mr. Giordanetti worked at Piaggio, makers of Vespa scooters, where he established a new retail concept and directed the company’s
first international communications
campaign. Mr. Giordanetti
is fluent in several European languages and has lived and worked in Milan, Florence,
New York, Paris, Hamburg and Zurich. He earned a degree in business
from Bocconi University in Milan |
abstract
Shanghai
through Faces & Traces: the Swatch Art Peace
Hotel experience
The Swatch Art Peace Hotel was born from the need and wish to open up a space for free expression in the heart of the booming, dynamic metropolis of Shanghai, China. The hotel hosts artists-in-residence in studios and living quarters on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Artists live and work as guests of Swatch for periods from 3 to 6 months in an environment that encourages them to experiment, exchange, and express themselves. They work in total freedom, part of a group of 18 artists who come and go at different times, which multiplies the opportunities to meet many different people during their stay. When the artists leave, Swatch asks them to leave a “trace” of their work—a work of art or other memento of their time in the Hotel. Since opening the hotel in 2011, Swatch has welcomed some 150 artists from more than 39 countries to this unique center for contemporary art in China’s most vibrant and fascinating city. The building itself began life as the Palace Hotel, which opened in 1909 on the corner of the Bund and the Nanjing Road. Lovingly restored by the Swatch Group, today the historic structure enjoys protected status as a cultural landmark. With its artist-in-residence program the Swatch Art Peace Hotel is both a convincing expression of Swatch’s commitment to supporting artists and their work and an ideal bridge between the past, present and future.
The remarkable success of the Swatch artist-in-residence program is due in large part to the principles that guide it: creativity, collaboration, community and challenge. Abundant evidence of the power of these “4 C’s” was provided in November 2014, when the hotel celebrated its third anniversary with the opening of a fascinating art exhibition, “Faces & Traces”. On display throughout the hotel were the “traces” of 139 artists-in-residence – evidence that spoke eloquently of the Shanghai experience through the eyes, art and words of the artists themselves.
In the course of the exhibition’s four-month run in Shanghai, thousands of visitors viewed work representing an exceptional variety of disciplines and practices in the contemporary arts. Along with paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and videos, the artists left traces in the form of a musical score, written texts and recorded sound as well as performances of songs, dance and theater. Visitors to the hotel continue to discover the amazing diversity of the arts today. From the main exhibition hall to the library, workshops and artist living quarters, to the exclusive 4th floor suites and 5th floor conference center, art is everywhere in this exceptional cradle of creative expression.
From Shanghai to Venice. As main partner to la Biennale Arte, Swatch is present at both the Giardini and Arsenale venues with Swatch Faces 2015. A special exhibition at the Arsenale presents recent work by contemporary artists, including many artists-in-residence from The Swatch Art Peace Hotel. Photographic portraits and traces of their work – from sound art to videos, paintings, sculptures and live performance art — offer an open door to the world, to the artists and their Shanghai experience.