This installation  explored the “secret” life of hotels through different people from different nationalities and played with the mystical atmosphere of an “abandoned” building . Each hotel room sees many users going through its doors. Although taking place in the same room, the individual experiences and feeling of these temporary residents can be extremely varied and colourful.

 

I recorded interviews of people, from various background and nationalities. I asked each person a simple question: “Can you tell me the story of an experience you had in an hotel room”.

I chose one of the empty hotel rooms and played the recordings of people telling stories that happened to them in hotel rooms.

 

On the wall was projected the "negative shadow" of an hotel room: bed, bedside light and wardrobe. Below big glass bottles where hanging, in each a different smell, relating to one of the stories being played on the stereo.

 

I aimed to place the audience in a context where it questioned the past of the building as well as its own past, as hotel rooms are something most of us can relate to.

 

This installation explored of the secret lives of hotels. It touched virtually everybody, as most of us have stayed at an hotel, at some point in our life; whether it be on holidays, on business travel, for pleasure or out of necessity. It also questions the place of an empty building and the loss of its use by temporarily placing the audience in the context of its former use.