RMB City
Chinese Second Life
The work of the Chinese multimedia and video artist Cao Fei (1978) comments on the rapid and chaotic changes in Chinese society. RMB City is a multiple long-term project consisting of online and offline events, videos and research.
During two years, Cao Fei, in the guise of her avatar China Tracy, will be building a virtual city on the Second Life online platform. RMB City is a reflection on the recent urban and cultural explosion in China. The architecture is an amalgam of Chinese icons old and new, from the panda to the ‘bird’s nest’, the new Olympic stadium in Peking. At the same time, RMB City examines the creative potential of an online art community and is intended to stimulate discourse on art, urbanism, economics, imagination and freedom.
In Performatik we shall be showing a new video that Cao Fei will make during the official opening of RMB City in early January 2009. Feel free to make your own avatar and visit RMB City on Second Life.
developer Cao Fei (SL: China Tracy) and Vitamin Creative Space | facilitator Uli Sigg Public | presenter Serpentine Gallery (London) | chief engineer Avatrian | thanks to Theatre in Motion (Beijing)
new video from RMB City directed by Cao Fei, Feng Shui | concept and design Huang He | creation for Performatik