Commissions by Audemars Piguet include Ryoji Ikeda?s Data-Verse (2019)
Olivia Giuntini is brand director at family-owned Swiss watch manufacturer Audemars Piguet, known for its thoughtful artistic collaborations. LUX travels to meet her at their HQ high in the Jura mountains to talk about art, fish and why women don?t just want diamonds
Olivia Giuntini
LUX: So many brands are partnering with artists now. What makes you different"

Olivia Giuntini: We always want to push boundaries and pursue our own path with a free spirit. When we meet artists, we definitely see who has this spirit and who has not. For example, Ryoji Ikeda was not part of the plan historically, but we met him a few years ago. Some discussions happened and we finally met again two years ago and that?s the moment when he proposed his three-part audio-visual installation Data-Verse [the first part of which was shown at the Venice Biennale in 2019], and, we said, ?Yes this is the right moment to do it?. But Ryoji is an artist unlike any other. He is a musician and composer, and he is also somebody who uses open data that is accessible to anybody. This accords with what struck me when I first met him ? his work is dedicated to making sure that people don?t use their brains first so much as their emotions. He is a kind of free spirit, which is something that definitely links us. It?s about sharing common values. Jana Winderen is another example. She came here and made music from the sounds of our village of...