Splash Mob Shanghai / Blue Man Group Swatch Special Launch Event, 30-SEP to 1-OCT-2006

Pictures and Text:  (c) by Swatch AG

Following the enormous success of SPLASHTIVAL, the SWATCH Jelly in Jelly Launch Party held in Lugano, Switzerland in June, SWATCH and world-famous performance artists Blue Man Group met again on stage in Shanghai. At the invitation of SWATCH China, Blue Man Group took part in a huge "Splash Mob" event on September 30th, and performed on stage at a concert the following evening.

The SWATCH + Blue Man Group relationship began with SPLASHTIVAL on June 1st in Lugano, where the blue-faced musicians were the stars of the show. During their performance in front of an enthusiastic crowd, the primal-energy paint-splashers took their trademark paint-drumming to a new level, creating a SWATCH watch right on stage-Paint in Blue. This latest piece of artful SWATCH, a limited edition SWATCH Jelly in Jelly Art Special, was unveiled October 1st by the Blue Men themselves.

The splashy, flashy, two-day Shanghai event began September 30th with a big Splash Mob event hosted by SWATCH China. Together with the Blue Man Group, members of the public, artists and VIPs took turns splashing buckets of paint on a huge canvas, creating-live!-a "Splash Mob" work of art.



The Swatch Splash Mob Event stands in front of the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, China on Saturday 30th September 2006.


The three Blue Man presenting the Swatch art piece made during the Splash Mob Event in front of the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, China on Saturday 30th September 2006. This Swatch event saw over 300 participants from the local media and Swatch fans, who threw paint onto the large watch-shaped canvas, following the artistic style of the Blue Man Group.


The big event continued the following evening with a concert starring the Blue Man Group and Asian pop star Wilber Pan, a very talented and entertaining young artist with a long list of hits to his name-six albums already, and he's only 26! The winner of numerous emerging-artist and music awards, Wilber Pan is widely and wildly popular throughout China. The October 1st concert at the Shanghai Grand Stage was the first public appearance of Paint in Blue, the SWATCH Art Special created by the Blue Man Group at SPLASHTIVAL last June. At the close of the evening's entertainment, the creators of Paint in Blue presented the new Art Special to the crowd.



Blue Man Group unveil Paint in Blue


The three Blue Man presenting the Swatch Paint in Blue at the watch's world-wide premier during the Swatch Concert in Shanghai, China on Sunday 01 October 2006. This watch was designed by the Blue Man in Lugano, Switzerland on June 1st during the Swatch Jelly in Jelly Launch Event. Swatch has cooperated with various renowned artists ever since the brand's conception to produce limited-edition watches, and the Swatch Paint in Blue is its latest creation.

Paint in Blue takes its place in the creative tradition of SWATCH Art Specials, with a delightfully gooey-looking blue strap made of perfectly primordial silicon rubber framing a typically Blue-Man swirl of colors on the dial of this SWATCH Jelly in Jelly. On the back of the strap is the work created live at the group's performance at SPLASHTIVAL. It's a bright, splattery, splashy painting, a signature work from the Blue Man Group for SWATCH and Blue Man fans around the world.

The SWATCH Art Special Paint in Blue comes with its own Special Packaging-a grey plastic jointed tube, looking something like a periscope with a big plastic lens that is at once a magnifying glass and a window on the watch inside! The tube evokes the Blue Man Group and the giant drums and pipe-work instruments they use to make music during their shows. Paint in Blue and its Special Packaging will be available in a limited and numbered edition of 3,333, worldwide.

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