Hotel Everland stands for a longing for something out of the ordinary, for a place exempted from the circumstances of everyday. Both the interior and the outside of the hotel plainly bear the mark of a one-off production. So, on the one hand this unique building fulfils all the criteria crucial to a work of art, including the longing to remove itself from the everyday. On the other hand, the experience has to be paid for. Art is no longer an ideal or idealised sphere – it forms part of the economic logic of utilization. And conversely, this logic contains inbuilt irritations of its own, for economic utilization in this case has its irrational aspects: the one-room hotel does not add up, the expense and return are entirely disproportionate. Moreover, the aspiration to exclusivity and retreat collides with the strong interest of groups and individuals visiting the hotel during the museum’s opening hours.
Hotel Everland was created by a married couple of Swiss artists, Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann, as an art project for the Swiss Expo 02. In 2002 the hotel attracted lively interest in Yverdon on the Neuenburg Lake. After its stay in Leipzig, Everland will move on and be set up again in Paris.
