The residence at the Swatch Peace Art Hotel was exciting beyond anything I could have imagined. I knew Shanghai before, when I was about five years ago for a street photography project. The residence experience started with a limousine at the airport and a most luxurious apartment and separate large studio in the historic building in the center of the city. Overlooking Bund and Pudong, about ten artists lived together and shared a breakfast and a chat in the morning.

The working opportunities were quite good, only the Internet restrictions proved to be a handicap. In the course of the months I got to know the city, but the Chinese artists in the residence were the only locals I got to know better. The solo exhibition six months later proved to be an astonishing show on approximately 600 square meters.