RMB City

"RMB City" is a planned project by Beijing-based artist Cao Fei, involving the creation of a virtual city and art platform in the online 3D world of SecondLife, in which interactive art exhibitions and events will be held over a two year period.

RMB City attempts to mimic the structures of real-world real estate and urban planning, from the “RMB City Planning” stage (where preview videos and promotional materials were displayed in “leasing offices and showrooms” at Art Basel Miami and Lombard-Fried Projects) to the involvement of investors and institutions to purchase usage of the city buildings.

RMB City in RL (Real-life)

Throughout the “construction process” and actual operation period, the Serpentine Gallery in London will display the progress of RMB City in a dedicated physical space. These institution- and individual collector-“managed” buildings in RMB City will hold regularly-changing exhibitions and events open to all Second Life users. The running of RMB City will be extensively documented on its [www.rmbcity.com official website] .

A Preview of RMB City

According to Cao Fei, RMB City will include:

*a Ferris wheel rotating on top of the Monument to the People's Heroes
*the water of the Three Gorges reservoir gushing out of the Tian'anmen rostrum
*gigantic planes gliding over terraces in the crevices of the central business district
*aerial super-malls
*water flowing into huge toilets on the container piers of the Pearl River Delta area before traveling through the sewage system into an ocean with floating statues of Mao Zedong.
*the rusted steel structure of the Olympic Stadium aka "Bird's Nest" will be washed in splashes of ocean spray, while an aerial band on a floating sheet of the national flag filled with five-pointed stars makes a deafening noise that shakes Rem Koolhaas' CCTV building, causing it to collapse

Upcoming Exhibitions of “RMB City: Construction Phase”

*June 27, 2008 "Construction Site Preview" Arnolfini Collection, London,
*July 17, 2008 "Construction Site Preview" Ullens Center for the Arts, Beijing
*July 26, 2008 "Official Public Groundbreaking" Serpentine Gallery, London

Exhibitions of “RMB City Planning”

*Lombard-Fried Projects, New York City (February 29-April 05, 2008)
*Le Plateau, Paris (March 13-25, 2008)
*Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture (January-March 2008)
*Art Basel Miami (December 6 -9, 2007)
*10th Istanbul Biennale (September 2007)
*Cao Fei/ China Tracy at the 52nd Venice Biennale (June 17th, 2007)

Recent RMB City & Cao Fei Press

*“Avatars and Antiheroes. A Guide to Contemporary Chinese Artists.” Claudia Albertini. Kodansha International. Feb 29, 2008.
*“Cao Fei/China Tracy: RMB City Catalogue”, ed. Cao Fei & Hu Fang, Vitamin Creative Space, Feb. 2008.
*“RMB City: Review,” Karen Rosenberg, New York Times, March 21, 2008
*“Flying Avatars Admire the Artwork,” Benjamin Genocchio, New York Times, March 12, 2008
*“The Virtual Muse and her Taxman,” Chin-Chin Yap, Asia Art Pacific, March 2008
*“Cao Fei sets a record price for virtual art?” Nadim Samman, The Art Newspaper, Dec 7 2007

External links

* [http://www.rmbcity.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.caofei.com/ Cao Fei's website]
* [http://www.vitamincreativespace.com/ Vitamincreativespace website]
* [http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life#Arts/ Second Life website]