Masterpieces to Timepieces with Carlo Giordanetti
The Swatch Art Journey 2024 brings together watchmakers and artists, aiming to make art more accessible through wearable timepieces. As part of the project, Swatch recently collaborated with Tate galleries in London to produce the Swatch x Tate Gallery Collection 2024.
The collection showcases works from renowned artists JMW Turner, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, and Louise Bourgeois, with each watch designed to capture the essence of the artist's unique style.
Novembre spoke to Swatch's Creative Director, Carlo Giordanetti, to learn more about the inspiration and aim behind creating wearable art pieces.
Novembre: How do you stay informed about emerging trends in the art world, and how do you incorporate them into your brand's strategy?
Carlo Giordanetti: It is part of Swatch's DNA to be curious and experimental. We like to travel with our mind to collect images, feelings, and emotions. All this translates into the creative energy behind the brand.
Pick one adjective to describe each of the watches created in the context of the TATE partnership:
I'd describe the Barns-Graham watch as "powerful". For Chagall, "dreamy". Matisse is "fun". Miró, "absorbing". Turner, "romantic".
The Bourgeois watch is "hypnotic".
What challenges and opportunities arise when integrating artistic elements into the design of timepieces?
Size is always a wonderful and inspiring challenge – figuring out how to capture the essence of a masterpiece and find ways to emotionally link it to the viewer in such a small and functional space.
Do you perceive your role as a global brand to enhance the cultural significance and accessibility of art to a particular audience?
The Swatch message is a universal one: passion, joy for life, and positive provocation are core elements of our brand that every person can interpret in their own way, depending on their age, culture, nationality. This message gets amplified when we collaborate with artists. The beauty of Swatch art projects lies in our mission to share their artworks with a broad audience, incorporating art into daily life, and displaying it on the wrists of people who enjoy it. Thanks to Swatch, everyone can become an art ambassador.
Many brands are interested in collaborating with the art world. What is the particular value of artistic creativity in the context of Swatch?
Swatch has been working with artists since its very early days. For the last 40 years, we've enjoyed offering the watch as a white canvas for creative talents to express themselves. More recently, we've started collaborating with museums and art institutions around the world. So our commitment to art is an important pillar of our brand. We love developing new interpretations of what an "artwork on the wrist" might look like. It's fascinating and empowering to see that there are virtually no limits to this vision that our founder Mr. Hayek had so long ago.
What piece of art would you like to create with Louise Bourgeois if she was still alive today?
A pink spider!
Do you integrate the creative ideation of artists with the brand's marketing objectives and product development as well?
This is exactly what we do.
When we work with artists, we involve their work in every aspect of the product development.
We represent their work throughout our brand and throughout the world: from communication to events to in-store presence. When it comes to art collaborations, we aim to be an extension of the artist's world, or a museum "off the wall".
How do you foster interdisciplinary collaborations at Swatch to ensure the brand remains at the forefront of innovation and creativity?
The life of Swatch is actually based on interdisciplinary exchanges, within the Swatch Group and outside. New materials, new designs, new ideas, and new experiences are all born out of Swatch's curiosity and open-mindedness. This attitude is the founding spirit of the brand.
Discover more on the 2024 Swatch Art Journey in collaboration with Tate, here!
