Belmond’s annual MITICO series with Galleria Continua brings contemporary art to the Mother City and beyond.

Now in its third season, the 2024 MITICO journey begins at the foot of Cape Town’s Table Mountain at the iconic Mount Nelson, where internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Daniel Buren entices visitors to take a moment to contemplate his work – Colourful Halt for Mount Nelson, work in situ, 2023.

The artist’s installation, “Haltes Colorées” or ‘colourful halt’ in English, is a bold symbiosis of art, architecture and nature.

At the heart of the hotel, the new work surrounds the garden fountain – a true historical landmark feature, present since before the hotel’s inception. Known for creating architectural interpretations of environments through colour and stripes, the artist uses the fountain’s circular shape as his base, installing 3-metre-pillars which alternate between mirrors and stripes. This succession of patterns playfully interacts with the surrounding nature, resulting in an explosion of light and movement when visitors wander through it. In the distance, Table Mountain extends over the hotel’s silhouette, resting on Daniel’s fountain pillars and further integrating his work into the majestic natural landscape overlooking the hotel.

The famous Cape Town hotel is just the first stop in this global series – further commissions will be on display at Belmond’s legendary properties: Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro; Villa San Michele, Florence; Castello di Casole, Tuscany; Hotel Cipriani, Venice; and La Residencia, Mallorca.

Each MITICO work is designed to perfectly complement its corresponding location, awakening the senses of travellers and creating a site-specific experience that transcends borders. Through these works, the artist encourages viewers to find a new perspective on the beauty of Belmond’s architecture and expansive natural surroundings.

“What brings together the six Haltes” of the 2024 MITICO season is the beauty of each location’s environment. Celebrating nature and architecture, these six highly varied in situ works offer a new perspective on Belmond’s properties, fitting into a different space each time,” says Daniel.

The artwork will be available to view by hotel guests and visitors alike, until 15 February 2025.

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Beyond the dreamy scenes in his much-adored films, director Wes Anderson has created another fantasy – this time, of the locomotive kind.

Celebrated director Wes Anderson has spent nearly three decades creating intricate on-screen worlds in films like The Darjeeling Limited, The Royal Tenenbaums and The French Dispatch. Now he’s deployed his trademark use of striking imagery and quirky narrative style to the interior of one of the Belmond Group’s British Pullman train carriages.

The carriages date to the first half of the 20th century, and sport whimsical names such as Cygnus, Perseus and Audrey. Recognised for lavishness in their heyday, they featured on the silver screen and even hosted royals before being restored in the early 1980s to make the most of the Art Deco interiors, antique marquetry, vintage lighting and heritage upholstery. Now Cygnus, named after a constellation and meaning “swan”, has been given the Wes star treatment.

The project is a match made in rail-buff heaven, as Wes has a keen interest in train travel and has created several elegant carriages and trains in his movies. “I was eager to make something new while participating in the process of preservation that accompanies all the classic Belmond train projects,” he says of his design for Cygnus. “They are keeping something special alive – an endangered species of travel that’s nevertheless very suited to our time.”

READ MORE: Franschhoek Luxury Tented Camp

The finished product is like stepping into one of Wes’s films – a carriage that references history but is bold and modern too – and it relies heavily on his filmic calling cards, which include a love of balance, distinct colour palettes and a retro aesthetic. Cygnus features a delicate pastel- pink ceiling, green tones in the carpets and chairs, and dreamlike wooden panels emblazoned with clouds, stars and ziggurat-shaped sunbeams. Wes’s characteristic use of symmetry and angular equilibrium can be seen
in the space’s bold lines, and in the shape of the chairs and mirrors. The carriage epitomises the notion that travel is about the journey and not the destination.

Leaving from London Victoria Station, the British Pullman offers high tea and Champagne-fuelled day trips, and journeys to historic sites and sporting events.

Our own slice of Anderson

If you aren’t able to board the Wes Anderson Royal Pullman carriage, Cape Town’s Mount Nelson Hotel (also a Belmond property) is known for its striking resemblance to the eponymous establishment in The Grand Budapest Hotel. We wouldn’t be surprised if the film’s famed concierge, Monsieur Gustave H, was personally responsible for the Nellie’s signature pink paint job. For a more outdoorsy expression of the Anderson style, check out our feature on Camp Canoe in Franschhoek, inspired by Moonrise Kingdom ’s iconic Camp Ivanhoe

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