A.V.P. HOTEL MARSEILLE
A couple of years ago I got the chance to join my partner in crime and baby-daddy Justin Blyth to Marseille, France where he was invited to design a room in a small boutique hotel called ‘Au vieux panier‘or short A.V.P.
Its located in a 17th century building in the oldest part of town ‘Le Panier’ that used to be sort of an off-limits ghetto but has nowadays gentrified into a nice bohemien neighborhood.
A.V.P.’s owner Jessica Venediger and her friends were extremely cool, made sure we ate and drank like only French people know how to and showed us around. Marseille is France’s second biggest city, full of history, contrasts, mixed cultures and with a pretty big art scene.
So not only is Jessica a really cool chick, she also offers international artists a 3D canvas and lets them transform the six different sized hotel rooms into pieces of art that you can sleep in. That said, some of the rooms are so trippy that you don’t even need to sleep to feel like you are in some really really weird dream…
The artists get a free creative hand to do whatever they have in their minds. That can be anything from subtle decorative styling to crazy installations like the ‘Panic Room’by French graffiti artist ‘Tilt’ who’s creation in Season 2 got a lot of international attention in the art and design scene.
The room and artists change every year and now A.V.P just reopened its doors for Season 5!
Check A.V.P.’s website for the latest updates and pictures of the newest rooms and for booking abviously!
www.auvieuxpanier.com
Here is a little selection of pics from this and past seasons.
‘Panic Room’ by Tilt
Here is a video of the making-of, really worth watching!
TILT – PANIC ROOM from BIG ADDICT on Vimeo.
“Catch in the Wind’ by Justin Blyth
“Purgatory Palace” by Mass Confusion
‘Skö’ by AVEXCITERS
Pascale Robert
Julien Colombe