Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website 120 years of beauty and hospitality: The Cristallo Resort & Spa celebrates turning itself into an artwork
february 05, 2021 - Cristallo Resort & SPA

120 years of beauty and hospitality: The Cristallo Resort & Spa celebrates turning itself into an artwork

In 1901 opened the symbol of Cortina d’Ampezzo #hospitality. The #hotel Cristallo, a Luxury Collection #resort & Spa, located in Cortina d’Ampezzo, celebrates its 120 years with several initiatives, among which the project by the Contini Art Gallery: an artwork of videomapping signed by master #marioarlati, the first of many artists who will succeed throughout the year to gather the community around a common visual narration. The day that the artwork will be turned on is the 7th of February, at the end of the Opening Ceremony of the World Ski Championships: athletes and staff from all over the world will be greeted by lights and colours, visible from everywhere in Cortina. The project has the patronage of Cortina d’Ampezzo Municipality and of Cortina Foundation 2021.

Cortina d’Ampezzo (BL), 5th of February 2021_ A “parade” of flags, symbol of cohesion of nations and of sport values, will transform the façade of #hotel Cristallo, a Luxury Collection #resort & Spa, Cortina d’Ampezzo, in a huge canvas signed by master #marioarlati, eclectic artist from Milan.

The art installation is part of the rich program with which the #hotel Cristallo celebrates its “first” 120 years, being mindful of the events that had been organised for its 100th #anniversary and for its 110 years of activity, bringing back together the community around this symbol of #hospitality and of the Made in Italy.

It’s a moment of joy, of celebration of friendship and of connections created with the guests and the Cortina territory: the synthesis of a long path that culminates in a year of events. And this is a message, especially nowadays: in this difficult historic period we need a pinch of optimism to light up the way. And so, the light itself is a part of the fil rouge of the #anniversary.

The videomapping on the façade of the #hotel will be realised thanks to the #collaboration with the Contini Art Gallery, well-known gallery with branches in Venice and Cortina. A partnership started in 2000 when the Gualandi family bought the property and carried on in time with many initiatives, like arrangements with works by artists such as Botero and Mitoraj.

The day chosen for the switching on is, significantly, the 7th of February, grand opening of the World Ski Championships. For two weeks Cortina will be projected in front of the whole world. So, even in this period of forced closure it will be possible to greet the champions with an artwork of big visual impact, able to instill warmth and optimism.

Outside an artist’s canvas, inside museum: the #hotel Cristallo “seen” by the Contini Art Gallery

A re-make for present times of the opera Art Lights Flags by #marioarlati is projected on the façade of the #hotel. The result is an aesthetic captivating experience. Inside the #hotel Cristallo, a Luxury Collection #resort & Spa, a solo exhibit of the artist collects the series Incomplete Flags, the same pieces recreated and projected outside are exhibited inside in reality.

CRISTALLO , A LUXURY CO LLECTIO N RESO RT & SPA IS O WNED BY H O TEL CRISTALLO S. P. A AND O PER ATED UNDER A LICENSE ISSUED BY ST AR WO O D EMEA LICENSE AND SER VICES CO M PANY BVB A

“We are happy to celebrate our #anniversary with an artwork that will be admired from all over Cortina” said #paolagualandi, Marketing Manager of the #hotel. “Ideally, we want to lighten up a period full of unknowns, but also rich of inspiration and dreams of rebirth. These difficult months subtracted us a lot, but not the pleasure of creating connections, to gather around what represents us: the unique landscapes that surround us, the sense of community. Beauty is a gift that we want to share. This year the celebrations will have, if possible, a deeper meaning for all of us”.

With this idea, the ambitious project started with the Contini Art Gallery comes to life. “We feel at home at the #hotel Cristallo and we work together with the Gualandi family for two decades” explains #riccardagrassellicontini, General Manager and curator of the project.

“The technology of videomapping is conquering our urban spaces, but this installation represents an innovation, thanks to the participation of accomplished artists, like #marioarlati, who is the author of the biggest habitable artwork of the world, a tableau of lights that in 2014 coloured an entire complex of skyscrapers in Moscow. These are complicated and stratified works, the result of a coherent personal path and of a solid artistic history”.

The project by #marioarlati is the first landmark of a big site-specific work that will accompany the #hotel Cristallo in 2021. Many artists will interchange, organizing luminous installations.

Simultaneously, they will have a solo exhibit inside the #hotel. A dialogue between the inside and the outside of the building will be created, in a game of echoes and references guided by a common inspiration, expressed with the language of contemporary art.

“I am happy to come back to Cortina, a place where I spend time hang out at regularly, with this initiative” explains #marioarlati. “The project takes the moves from a similar artwork of architectural lighting that I realized for the St. Mark’s Campanile in Venice, which in turn is born from the series Incomplete Flags, exhibited inside the #hotel. I created only sketched flags, fainted, that are completed by the gaze of who is looking. These are pieces of pop inspiration and full of social value, an homage to the painting of Jasper Johns and to the vision of Richard Rauschenberg. I use recycled fabrics and canvas, coming from factories or textile studios, and destined to pulping mill: in this way I give back dignity to a poor material, excluded by the
production cycle”.