Date: From 26 July to Autumn 2008
Exhibition location: Serpentine Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Developer of RMB City: Cao Fei and Vitamin Creative Space

Facilitator: Uli Sigg
Virtual location: RMB City website, you can also join Second Life here then visit RMB City in Second Life

Beijing-based artist Cao Fei (born 1978) is fusing fantasy with the contemporary Chinese city in her construction of RMB City, an experimental art community in the internet-based virtual world of Second Life.

Cao Fei's long-awaited RMB City is under construction in Second Life. After an official ground-breaking ceremony on July 14, 2008, the main islands in all four quadrants of RMB City completed terraformation (shaping of topography), and foundations were laid for key urban structures. The Preview Center, a specially-designed floating building, where the public can peer through the windows to view the ever-changing RMB City construction site beyond. Visitors may also learn more about the city through videos, photos, text, and even free gifts. Each week, a new construction-montage video will be added here, to give a "closer look" to the ongoing process.

To coincide with the opening of the Preview Center, the Serpentine Gallery in London launched its real-life (RL) presentation of the project in a dedicated gallery space on July 25, 2008.

The RMB City commission

The Serpentine has commissioned the artist to present RMB City in the public space and to continue her investigation of this digital landscape. Once she has completed its construction in Autumn 2008, the buildings of the virtual city will be occupied for two years by partners including institutions and individual collectors who will host exhibitions and cultural activities open to all Second Life users. The project explores the creative potential of an online art community, seeking to create the conditions for an expansive discourse about art, urbanism, economy, imagination and freedom.

Reflecting on China's recent urban and cultural explosion, the architecture of RMB City is an amalgam of Chinese icons, ancient and modern, from the panda to the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The installation in the Gallery's lobby presents two- and three-dimensional visualisations of RMB City as well as computer access to a virtual viewing platform over the construction site, which features video updates of the construction process.

Cao Fei, through the avatar she created called China Tracy, spent a year exploring the possibilities of Second Life and produced the i.Mirror trilogy, 2007, a series of films that document her adventures, which were presented in the Chinese Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, 2007 and Cao Fei's solo exhibition in March 2008 at Le Plateau, Paris.

Second Life was conceived as a platform for participants to create a parallel reality in which to live out their dreams, and 14 million people worldwide have registered since it launched in 2003. Each user is represented by an avatar, a digital figure that they can customise and control. As well as visiting existing environments and communicating with other inhabitants, participants can purchase land, design buildings, develop businesses and trade in a marketplace of their choice.

To know more about RMB City, We welcome you to join the "RMB Citizens" group, to keep informed about your city in Second Life as it continues to grow and change On July 25, the Serpentine Gallery in London will kick off its presentation of RMB City in real-life, coinciding with the opening of the RMB City Preview Center in Second Life. Throughout the 'construction process' and actual operation period, the Gallery will show the progress of RMB City in its lobby and on its website.

Press releases (PDF Format) available at the bottom of this page

Images and text courtesy of Cao Fei, RMB City Group, Vitamin Creative Space
(Beijing and Guangzhou, China) and Serpentine Gallery (London, United Kingdom).

RMB City: Ground Breaking Ceremony

RMB City: A Secondlife City Planning

CAO FEI

Born 1978, Guangzhou, China
Lives and works in Beijing, China

Education

2001
Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts

1997
The Affiliated Middle School of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts

Solo Exhibitions

2007
Cao Fei: Whose Utopia?, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA

2006
PRD Anti-Heroes, Museum Het Domein, Sittard, Netherlands
Hip Hop, Lombard-Freid Projects, New York
What Are You Doing Here?, SIEMENS Art Project 2006, Fu Shan OSRAM factory, Guangzhou, China
COSPlayers, Para Site Art Space, Hong Kong

2005
COSPlayers, Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, New York
COSPlayers, Courtyard Gallery, Beijing, China

2004
The San Yuan Li Project, Courtyard Gallery, Beijing, China

2003
Skowhegan Art Residency, Skowhegan, Maine

Selected Group Exhibitions

2007
10th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Brave New Worlds, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Everyday Miracles, 52nd Venice Biennale, Chinese Pavilion, Venice, Italy
Infiltration and Sound(e)scape, Senda-Espai 2nou2, Barcelona, Spain
Lyon Biennial, Lyon, France
Moving Targets: Business As Usual/ New Video from China/ Cao Fei and Yang Fudong, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
RED HOT- Asian Art from the Chaney Family Collection, Houston, TX
The Real Thing, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
World Factory: Resistance and Dreams, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

2006
China Power Station: Part 1, Battersea Power Station, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
Panoramica- Ciclo de video: Mascaradas: disfraces, espejos, mascaras, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo, Bosque de Chapultepec, Mexico
New Photographers 2007, Cannes Lions Festival, Cannes, France
Singapore Biennale, Singapore
Empire and back, Westfaelischer Kunstverein, Muenster, Germany
China Contemporary exhibition, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, Gaermany
People, Land, State, The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon, Israel
Japanimation, Tokyo Gallery, Beijing, China
Guangzhou: Cantonese Artists in the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
AllLookSame?, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
Busan Biennale, Busan, Korea
Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Guangzhou, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Territory, Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Political Equator, University of California, San Diego, CA; Tijuana, Mexico
Good Vibrations-le Arti visive e il Rock, Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Sienna, Italy
The Thirteen: Chinese Video Now, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY
Joy, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg
15th Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia
Beijing Case: Culture of the High Speed Urbanism, The Center for Art and Median(ZKM) , Karlsruhe, Germany
Never Go Out Without My DV cam - Video Art from China, Museo Colecciones ICO, Madrid, Spain
Fantasy Landscapes, Asia House, London
Festival of Love: Video Art Series, Asia Society, New York
Astrup Fearnley Collection: Photo and Video, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Norway

2005
Irreality, Para Site, Hong Kong,China
Zooming into Focus: Chinese Contemporary Photography from the Haudenschild Collection, NAMOC National Art Museum Of China, Beijing, China
Mahjong, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
Exchange Value of Pleasure, Busan Museum of Modern Art, Busan, Korea
Art Basel Miami Beach Art Video Lounge: A Kind of a Portraiture Program, Miami, FL
Sweet Taboos, 3rd Tirana Biennale, Tirana, Albania
We Are the World, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Riena Sofia, Madrid, Spain
I still believe in miracles, Part II, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Trouble with Fantasy, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
Out of Sight, De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam, The Neatherlands
Get It Louder, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China
Unspeakable Happiness, Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art, Mexico City, Mexico
Women by Women IN PHOTOGRAPHY part two, Cook Fine Art, NY, New York
CIRCULAR-domas, 2005 Milan Furniture Fair, Milan, Italy
Parallel Realities: Asian Art Now, The 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka, Japan
Follow Me!: Contemporary Chinese Art at the Threshold of the Millennium, Mori Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Emergency Biennale in Chechnya: A suitcase from Paris to Grosny, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Millennium, Mori Museum, Tokyo, Japan
1st Montpellier Biennale, Montpellier, France
The 2nd Guangzhou Triennial: BEYOND an Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for Modernization, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Yoko Ono’s Water Event 2005, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Norway
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London
London Chinese Film Festival 2005, SOAS (The School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London, London, England
Borders in Asia, World Social Forum, Porte Alegro, Brazil
Dialectics of Hope, 1 Moscow Biennial, Moscow, Russia

2004
Do It, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, Florida
Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Taiwan, China
Nuit Blanche, Art Public Contemporain, Paris, France
Impakt Festival, Netherlands
Past in Reverse: Contemporary Art of East Asia, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California
Die Chinesen: Contemporary Photography and Video in China, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
5th Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai Museum of Art, Shanghai, China
China Moon, Watermill Center, Watermill, New York
A l'Est du Sud de l'Ouest, Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Villa Arson Nice, France
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video From China, ICP and Asia Society, New York, NY
Tatig Sein, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst e.V. (NGBK), Berlin, Germany
China Now, Gramercy Theatre, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Chine: Generation Video, Maison Européenne de la Photogrqaphie, Paris, France
Out the Window: Spaces of Distraction, The Japan Foundation Asia Center, Tokyo, Japan
Heads & Portraits, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg, Germany
Feverish Unconscious, Chambers Fine Art, New York, NY
Generation Video, Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
Out the Window: Spaces of Distraction, Japan Foundation, Tokyo, Japan Darling Art Foundation, Seoul, South Korea

2003
Left Wing, Left Bank Community, Beijing, China
Screening Programme: San Yuan Li Project, MK2 (Bibliothèque), Paris, France
Fabricated Paradises, Le Parvis centre d'art contemporain, Ibos, France
10th Biennial of the Moving Image, Geneva, Switzerland
Zooming into Focus: Chinese Contemporary Photography from the Haudenschild Collection, San Diego State University & San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California
Public Space and Personal Eyes, Kampnagel, Hamburg
Alors la Chine?, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Z.O.U. (Zone of Urgency), 50th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
+system, Short Videos from the World 2002-2003, BizArt, Shanghai
The Minority Is Subordinate to the Majority, BizArt, Shanghai

2002
In/Video, Milan. Italy
Kino Film Festival, Manchester, UK
Reinterpretation: A Decade of Experimental Chinese Art – The 1st Guangzhou Triennale, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
Media City Seoul The 2nd Seoul International Media Art Biennale, Seoul, South Korea
Pause: The 4th Gwangju Biennale 2002, Gwangju, South Korea
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France
Making China, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York, NY

2001
Weightlessness, Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin, Germany
The New Media Art Festival: Non-linear Narrative, National Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China
Living in Time: 29 Contemporary Artists from China, Hamburger Bahnhof Contemporary Art Museum, Berlin, Germany
City Slang, Art Village, Hong Kong, Japan
The 2nd Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Take Part, Galerie Urs Meile, Luzern, Switzerland
Virtual Future, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China

2000
Fuck Off: Uncooperative Approach, Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai, China
Pusan International Contemporary Art Festival: Leaving the Island, Pusan, South Korea
PhotoEspana 2000, Madrid, Spain

1999
8th Biennial of Moving Images, Saint-Gervais Geneva, Switzerland
4th Cross-Strait, Hong Kong and Macau Student Film & Video Festival, Hong Kong, Japan
Video screening, Galerie Büro Friedrich, Berlin, Germany

Film Projects

2006
Yuannan New Film Project, Yuannan Provincial Teleplay and Film Creation Supervision Panel, Yuannan and Beijing.

2005
Milkman

1999
Imbalance 257

Fellowship Program

2005
Beijing Case: Culture of the High Speed Urbanism, German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes), Germany.

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