Opening of the Swatch Art Peace Hotel – Shanghai

November 1, 2011. Swatch Group is pleased to announce that today the Swatch Art Peace Hotel was officially opened in Shanghai. Numerous officials representing Shanghai government authorities were on hand for the occasion, as was Mr. Nick Hayek, who welcomed his guests, Swatch Group Management, and fellow members of the Artist Selection Committee, Sri Francis Yeoh, François-Henri Pinault and Mikhail Kusnirovich.

Following the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Shanghai officials and the press visited the two floors of the landmark hotel that are devoted to artist workshops and living quarters. Many of the artists were on hand to show their work and to talk about life in Shanghai and in the hotel in particular. Later in the day Mr. Hayek took M. Pinault, who was accompanied by his wife, actress Salma Hayek, and Mr. and Mrs. Kusnirovich as well as Tan Sri Francis Yeoh on a personal tour of the ateliers, where they stopped to talk to the artists and to see their work.

During the day an unprecedented event took place on the Bund outside the hotel. Swatch Art at the Bund gave artists, art students, schoolchildren and members of the public the opportunity to paint «live» on canvases set up along the waterfront. Artists present and participating in the street-painting event included Billy the Artist, from New York, Swiss artist Ted Scapa, from Japan Ayako Rokkaku and several artists currently living and working in The Swatch Art Peace Hotel.