From the Editor 14 Entrepreneurs are constantly talking about passion, which makes sense: it’s a catchall buzzword that can make any sort of business sound remarkably personal and full of hard-working people driven by inspiration. But when you come across a true passion project, especially in the hospitality industry, it knocks your socks off. In this issue, we turn our attention to a number of such high-concept passion projects around the world, from the coast of sub-Saharan Africa to an unheralded region of Europe and the deserts of Rajasthan. Take Camille Oostwegel, a second-generation hotelier from the very south of the Netherlands. His father opened four hotels over the course of the past decades, and now the younger Oostwegel is bringing them into the 2020s. In fact, he took over as owner and managing director on 1 January 2020, plunging headfirst into hospitality’s hardest year in a generation. Fully recovered, his quartet of properties is now thriving, taking advantage of their historic settings to showcase the region’s dynamic design scene as well as its burgeoning culinary bounty. It’s an area of Europe that is not often on travel itineraries – and that’s about to change, as you’ll read about on page 32. Passion also takes centre stage in our features on a singular resort in Mozambique (p58), a Bavarian artist with a very close relationship to his materials (p35) and a perfumer who is making scents from the plants and botanicals he loves (p47). Elsewhere in these pages, we offer a piece on the private-island real-estate market, the timeless allure of Marbella and the Philippines’ gilded legacy of jewellery-making. We hope you enjoy reading the magazine and find inspiration here for stoking your own passions. – Christian Schwalbach On the Cover Gracing this issue’s cover is a mind-bending drawing created by Malta-born artist Matthew Attard using an eye-tracker. This cutting-edge instrument tracks the human gaze and translates it into raw data, which Attard then transforms into transfixing works of art that question conventional notions of seeing and looking – based, in this case, on the graffiti of ships in his native country for a 2023 series called Id-Dghajjes tal-Fidili (Vessels of the Faithful). Attard is representing Malta at the 60th Venice Biennale (20 April – 24 November) in a solo show entitled I Will Follow The Ship. CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
DYLAN SEATING SYSTEM | RODOLFO DORDONI DESIGN RAPHAEL SOFA | GAMFRATESI DESIGN DISCOVER MORE AT MINOTTI.COM/DYLAN
