Design hotel, gallery, art residence: how contemporary art occupied 4 floors of Wynwood

Anastasia Baranova, Managing Director of the Wynwood Hotel, answers ELLE Decoration's questions

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Polina Poludkina

The exhibition of the Moscow artist Sasha Frolova, which was the result of her residence in St. Petersburg, continues at the Wynwood Hotel until September 12. For the "Illusion" project, she turned her latex sculptures into lenticular images, which can now be seen on the walls of the lobby and along the main staircase. The works that create the effect of depth help to rethink the iconic images of the artist, which were subjected to a double rebirth: volume — plane — volume.

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Sergey Melnikov

Opened in 2017 in Benenson's house at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and the embankment of the Griboyedov Canal, the hotel has already become a cult place for travelers. For Wynwood, creative collaborations with current artists are a good rule rather than an exception. So, cooperation with Sasha continues the program of art residencies, launched in 2020 by the exhibition of Evgenia Dudnikova "Along the contour of fictional Worlds", the collection of the design space already has works by street art stars Krasas Lampas and Maxim Ima, as well as Varvara Cheltsova, Anna Khorosheva and Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov. Anastasia Baranova, Managing Director and ideologist of Wynwood, tells how to create a hotel that you want to return to again and again and make it a new important point on the art map of St. Petersburg.

Photo

Sergey Melnikov

Photo

Sergey Melnikov

Anastasia Baranova

Managing Director and ideologist of the Wynwood Hotel

Personal website

ABOUT THE CONCEPT We are called Wynwood — as an art quarter in Miami, famous for graffiti, which is created by the best street artists in the world. The founders were inspired by the concept and decided to move it to the hotel, so art initially became part of its DNA.

In Miami, graffiti is replaced every year. We are not ready to do new street work so often yet, but we are constantly thinking about where to move on.

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Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov

ABOUT THE MURAL OF KRASAS LAMPAS The hotel has 38 rooms. We do not have a clear division into standard rooms and suites, we are guided by specific characteristics: a view of Kazan, a view of the courtyard, a view of an art object. A room with a view of the courtyard-well usually becomes a problem for a hotel, but we wanted to turn it into one that they would definitely want to book. We have been looking for someone who could paint the wall for a long time, and at one of the events we met Krasus Lampas. A week later, he came to us and immediately agreed — this is a big interesting site in the city center, this does not happen often. We had to do a lot of preparatory work, the wall was prepared for three weeks, and the graffiti itself appeared in seven days. We can say that this project was also the first art residence - during the work, Krasus lived with us on the second floor.

"A room with a view of the courtyard-well usually becomes a problem for a hotel, but we wanted to turn it into one that they would definitely want to book"

THE SECOND PROJECT we did it with the artist and director Vera Martynov. She curated an exhibition about St. Petersburg "Co-relations" at the hotel, which brought together 55 paintings by 25 artists. Gradually, after this project, a certain artistic environment began to develop around Wynwood.

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19TONES

ABOUT WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO SUPPORT CONTEMPORARY ARTCommunication with artists is important to me, with each new project the hotel seems to start living differently. Someone chooses chain hotels, those that provide the same service anywhere in the world. But it is very important for me to feel the city where I come. And art, exhibitions, collaborations with artists are one of the ways to allow guests to immerse themselves in the life of the city. I would like the answer to the question of where to stay in St. Petersburg to be: "Only Wynwood!".

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Polina Poludkina

But such projects are also important from a business point of view. According to the results of a study that we commissioned recently, the art program is 100% of the time part of the hotel concept. We were surprised how many market leaders are working in this direction, and realized that we are doing everything right.

"Art is the air of space, it seems that it is no longer possible without it"

Plus, for me it's a dialogue with the guests. For example, when we were preparing the exhibition of Sasha Frolova, only an hour and a half of hanging five people became interested in the project, and one of our regular guests bought a work in the first two weeks of the exhibition.

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Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov

ABOUT THE ART PROGRAM We cooperate with many museums and galleries in St. Petersburg, Manege, Anna Nova, Myth Gallery, Marina Gisich Gallery, the Access Point Art Festival and other projects. Curators and artists live here during the preparation of exhibitions, and this also creates a special atmosphere. I want the guests to get a unique experience during their stay in St. Petersburg, and we can offer it. As part of partnership agreements with the Arena, we arranged private excursions for guests, during the pandemic it was especially important. And this is just one example. What is a hotel? Also, the opportunity to visit where the locals go to understand what the city lives and breathes, what it is real now.

"The hotel is an opportunity to visit where locals go to understand what the city lives and breathes, what it is real now"

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Polina Poludkina

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Polina Poludkina

ABOUT THE COLLECTION I'm always at the hotel and I can't agree on even minor details if I have to compromise. While I'm here, I want everything to be perfect. That's why it's the same with art — I choose works as for my collection. This is a process in which it is impossible to be hypocritical.

ABOUT THE LAUNCH OF A NEW HOTEL, a full-fledged gallery will appear in the new project. Our public space functions here in this capacity. There will also be much more space. We really want to continue the residency program: you can live in Wynwood, but you can't fully create because of the lack of a large studio space. Evgenia Dudnikova made a mural right on the wall, Varvara Cheltsova painted small watercolors, but we would like to work with larger formats. As soon as everything is ready, we will provide the space together with the workshop.

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Sergey Melnikov

ABOUT THE CHANGES It seems that the repair cannot be completed completely, it can only be suspended. I follow all hoteliers, world trends and our Russian friends. We try to support eco-initiatives, for example, now the St. Petersburg production is making for us an experimental batch of dishes from old glass bottles collected at the hotel. Art is the same harmonious process. I dream that in a year an object of contemporary art will appear in every issue. And ideally, organize a storage and be able to change jobs seasonally, exchange with someone, let the paintings travel! Hopefully in a couple of years we'll be able to afford it.

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Polina Poludkina

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Polina Poludkina

Margarita Kosolapova
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