THE EXHIBITIONIST

The scheme: Hotel as art

The scene: HOMA Libre, Guilin, China

You've heard of MoMA? This is its Chinese cousin, HOMA (Hotel of Modern Art), located in a 1,320-acre park filled with 200 sculptures by over 100 artists from around the globe. The idea behind the park, called Yuzi Paradise and created by Taiwanese entrepreneur Tsao Rhy-Chang, is to merge art and nature. It also caters to an increasingly global art market—and it just so happens that China is one of the hottest art destinations right now. HOMA Libre (oddly, a Relais & Châteaux property), takes it one step further, bringing art into the living spaces (a hotel trend we've covered before). The 46 rooms are wildly different and imaginative, and each has the distinct feeling that it was curated rather than furnished. Even the hotel's souvenir shop feels like you wandered into a gallery gift store. There's also an organic produce garden, a high-end Asian fusion restaurant, the Woods Cafe in a thicket of pine trees, and a spa with treatments that have names like "balneotherapy" (that's medicinal bathing in case you were wondering). The park's Atelier offers classes in pottery, jewelry-making, and other faculties to spark your artistic side. And at the end of the day, you can snuggle into your Alice in Wonderland bed, gaze out your pod shaped window, and have your very own night at the museum.

HOMA Libre
Tel: 800 735 2478 (toll-free)
Tel: 86 773 386 5555
Doubles from $350

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