An Insider’s Look: Patina Hotel Maldives

For the inaugural flagship property of Patina Hotels and Resorts, The Artling worked as the art consultant to create an engaging artwork journey that greets guests upon arrival and guides them as they explore the island resort. Patina Maldives’ artwork collection invites guests to explore and reflect on the pieces, placed within an idyllic natural setting.

The curated collection consists of site-specific commissions and unique artworks for the 219 villas and various public spaces. It is designed as a series of artistic encounters with which guests can directly interact, with each bespoke piece forming an integral part of the island landscape.

Project Information

• Location: Maldives
• Client: Capella Hotel Group
• Project Type: Hospitality
• Project Scope: Guestrooms, Public Areas
• Services Provided: Art Consultancy
• Interior Designer: Studio MK27 (Marcio Kogan)
• Status: Completed
• Artling Project Team: Kim Tay, Talenia Phua Gajardo, Ivy Chang, Tina Rim
• Year Completed: 2021

Process and Collaborators

We collaborated extensively with renowned Brazilian architectural firm Studio MK27 and partnered with esteemed landscape architects VDLA to bring to life a captivating selection of artworks that invite guests to engage with their surroundings. All the artworks on the island are commissioned works, integrated seamlessly with the landscape and interiors. Each of the artists was invited to create initial sketch ideas of what they envisioned for the space.

The artworks all had to designed in a way that they could be transported to the island easily and utilize the limited machinery available on-island to construct and install the final pieces. We worked closely with them, the project managers, the interior designers as well as the landscape architects to realize the final artworks.

The Collection

In creating the artwork collection, it was key to delve into the story behind the brand, and to ensure this was integrated into the art collection. Esteemed for its sustainable ethos, the elevated Maldivian island destination drives the connection between Tomorrow’s travellers and nature; celebrating wellness and empowering communities. Guided by Patina’s philosophy of reconnecting and tuning in with one’s own senses, the island’s permanent art collection is dedicated to sensorial appreciation, exhibiting artworks which vary across different mediums, textures and techniques.

Reception

On arrival, guests are greeted warmly by Home Deep Blue, a six-metre-wide tapestry by New York-based artist Hiroko Takeda, whose work celebrates the traditions of Mingei Undou, the Japanese folk craft movement. Using blue and green cotton linen yarn, Takeda has created a heavy textural fabric of abundant movement and rhythm, light and shadow. The work amuses the viewer’s perception as horizontal movement and distance merge with the nearness and depth of the ocean up through the surface to the sky; What is close is what is far. 

Guestrooms

The Artling commissioned renowned Brazilian photographer Cássio Vasconcellos to capture images of Maldivian flora for each of the villas. The resulting series of nine large-scale photographic prints imbue the interiors with a tropical sense of place, drawing the outside in and further accentuating the architectural dialogue with nature.

Public Spaces

Erected alongside the Maldives’ lofty palm trees towers the eight Mirrored Columns which make up Hongjie Yang's Synthesis Monoliths. Synthesis Monolith is a bespoked commissioned installation piece which investigates the transformative properties of metal, tracing in a single totemic object the primitive origins of aluminium and steel in rock ores through to their emergence as highly polished artificial materials. These sculptures play with the notion of the uncanny; initial familiarity is undermined by uncertainties around the properties of materials, the objects’ origins, and the processes through which they were made. In the production of the marine-grade stainless steel columns, Yang utilised an experimental casting technique which combines ancient craft with contemporary technology, expressed in the convergence of natural and machined surfaces. The reflective exterior brings the viewer’s living presence into the sculpture’s aesthetic and form, seeking to evoke a state of contemplation.

Close to the water’s edge, self-taught Mexican sculptor Jose Dávila also reveals a relation of contrasts with Los Limites de lo Posible IX, a series of stone sculptures in which perfect geometric shapes hewn from volcanic recinto interact with the capricious natural forms of unaltered sandstone boulders.

Laying ever so still on the coasts of Fari Island, the effortless yet formidable Momento joins sunbathers in overlooking the crystal blue Maldivian waters. Momento was another site-specific piece, carefully engineered for Patina Maldives by FAHR 021.3. The huge sculpture echoes liminality, a construction of a temporal moment that hovers over the beach, recreating a scenic space of fruition between the sea and the vegetation, surely punctuating nature with its majestic profile. Through a very simple geometric action the idea of this concrete sculpture is to be able to build a new space of dialogue between the human body with the landscape and time that surrounds it. 

As the inaugural property launching the Patina Hotels & Resorts brand, we had the unique opportunity to craft an artwork collection that would set the tone for all future Patina hotels. We looked closely at the brand theme of Perpetuity, seeking to create a timeless collection that could be appreciated by all generations. Guided by Patina’s philosophy of reconnecting and tuning in with one’s own senses, the island’s permanent art collection is dedicated to sensorial appreciation, exhibiting artworks which vary across different mediums, textures and techniques.

About Patina Maldives, Fari Islands

Patina Maldives, Fari Islands is the inaugural flagship property from sophisticated new lifestyle brand Patina Hotels & Resorts, the latest hospitality concept by Capella Hotel Group. Designed by renowned Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan, Patina Maldives offers 90 contemporary one- to three-bedroom Beach and Water Pool Villas, alongside 20 Fari Studios, all of which embody a harmony of sanctuary and stimulation. Set in the Fari Islands archipelago in North Malé Atoll, guests can immerse themselves in a new expression of island life through thoughtful tailormade wellness journeys, interactive music programmes, captivating culinary experiences, and bask in the light-filled James Turrell Skyspace Amarta pavilion — all while embracing the vibrant social scene that emanates from the destination’s communal heart: the Fari Marina Village and Fari Beach Club.

A special thank you to ALL the participating artists, designers and galleries for working with us on this amazing project!

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