“PinchukArtCentre announced 21 young artists nominated for the Future Generation Art Prize 2010.

The Future Generation Art Prize established by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation is a major new international competition for artists up to 35 to discover and provide long-term support for a generation of emerging artists, wherever they may live and work [...] http://www.futuregenerationartprize.org/”

While skimming through the pages of a Hong Kong newspaper, our 2nd mayor and economy advisor, AlanLau Nirvana, has come upon this curious advertising graphic used by the Bank of China: a giant iridescent red RMB sign raising among a somehow recognizable urban skyline.

Advertising, like a voracious monster wolfing down cultural trends, couldn’t let this opportunity slip. Adapting RMB City concept to a more down-to-earth ethics, the advertisement utilizes an evidently popular image to communicate its message.
On the one hand, this means that RMB City has become a social familiar cultural product, immediately clear and recognizable (apparently people did make of this city THEIR CITY, too, as the manifesto goes).
Does on the other hand this mean that we are all going to share a substantial profit by this initiative, or are we so on doomed to follow the ups and downs of a volatile and capricious economy?

Temporarily leaving her smoggy ethereal office in the terraces of RMB City suburb, Master Q’s must have been here…signs of her passage are everywhere: a magical stardust spread on grey everyday life and diffusing new sparkles in the air…

…tiny miniature replicas of Chinese landscapes…fragile salt mountains and landscapes…made with love and carefulness…dissolving in the air and running like rivers through everyday objects and spaces…a hint of magical refreshing snow in a sultry Beijing summer…Thank you Master Q! Come back again.

Next Autumn RMB City takes part in the 29th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil.
“There is always a cup of sea to sail in” is the title of this year’s Biennale: a quotation from the Brazilian poet Jorge de Lima’s major work Invenção de Orfeu (1952). Exploring the inextricable interconnections between art and politics, the event aims at investigating the role of art in contemporary society and its constant power of reinventing new reality, or as Lima’s poem goes: “the power to sail on even without ships / even without waves and sand”.
What is this endless urge of poetry and art to express themselves in new forms? And what is their relation with politics and earthly contingencies?
RMB City and another approximately 160 artists from all around the world will disclose their positions from next September, so stay tuned for more information!

For more info see:  http://www.fbsp.org.br/29_bienal-en.html

Photo by George Shuba

Dear Molly,

following up your outstanding performance at RMB City “Naked Idol” event, we would like to ask you a few questions. Are you ready to undress your imagination once more?

1. What does nudity represent to you both in the real and the virtual dimension?

“Would you let me walk down your street
Naked if I want to?” – Moby Grape, 1967

I think of the soldier standing naked at the entrance to the asylum in the film Le Roi de Coeur. http://www.renesch.com/images/king_of_hearts%20poster.jpg

I think of Jim Morrison surrounded by police on stage after being suspected of exposing himself.

I think of the covers of “nudist” magazines on city newsstands years ago. They always seemed to be playing volleyball.

Considering Second Life nudity the first thing I think of is the inevitable noob walking around naked.

I have seen nude beaches in Second Life where no one is naked. Nudity in Second Life is I think something that every resident has thought about. We are simply pixels yet nearly no one would allow themselves to be seen without clothing.

I remember logging on once. Many sims were down. People were rezzing in welcome areas instead of their normal locations. 40 people in one place. Lag making it impossible to move or teleport away. Nearly nothing was rezzing. I snapped some pictures and posted one on the SL Flickr group. My photo was removed by a moderator for violating the no nudity rule in spite of the fact that those there looked like dozens of grey, featureless mannequins piled into a closet.

My own first experience with public nudity in Second Life occurred while I was setting up a snapshot. I was making an avatar parody photo of Duchamp’s painting Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2. I was adjusting poses in the set I had built for the photo when I thought I had crashed. Actually the sim had gone down. I restarted and rezzed naked in the Ahern Welcome Area rather than my previous location. I quickly flew up 300 meters and put on some clothes.

2. How would you describe your Naked Tour through RMB City and what do you think is the true and bare nature of the island?

I have been interested in RMB City since it was first announced. It’s cosmopolitan mixture of old and new and of east and west is exciting. Still emerging from the time of Mao yet facing the future. This is the sense I have of RMB City and it influenced my choice of avatar I used for the naked idol event.

3. What do you think a ‘Naked Idol’ is or should be? A moment of transgression, embarrassment, freedom or what more?

I approached the event as a “fun” event. I wanted to participate and I wanted to see what others would do. I had planned to have a Guan Yin like avatar riding on a bed of swirling clouds and carrying auspicious objects. The event was for me a challenge rather than a contest. I was disappointed that I didn’t finish what I had planned. I instead arrived to see what the others had done.

I feel the event did allow the participants to explore the idea of what does it really mean to be naked in a pixelated world.

-Molly Montale

Dear Vivienne,

following up your outstanding performance at RMB City “Naked Idol” event, we would like to ask you a few questions. Are you ready to undress your imagination once more?

1. What does nudity represent to you both in the real and the virtual dimension?

In the real world it represents vulnerability and lack of pretence; in a virtual environment, there’s something more of artifice about it (as there is with all of our self-representations in virtual space); nudity in a virtual space is in some ways less vulnerable and yet possibly more exposed (as we appear here not as we are but as we would like to be).

2. How would you describe your Naked Tour through RMB City and what do you think is the true and bare nature of the island?

As a collective expression of fantasy and imagination given reality in pixels.

3. What do you think a ‘Naked Idol’ is or should be? A moment of transgression, embarrassment, freedom or what more?

Not transgression nor embarrassment; freedom, yes…and in a virtual context a visible challenge to preconceived bourgeois ideas of nudity as necessarily a sexual rather than creative or individualistic expression.

Thank you very much, see you!

Gianna, RMB City

Check Vitamin’s blog for information and new address: http://vitamincreativespace.blogbus.com/logs/68321532.html

June 16-20, 2010

Intrigued glances, embarrassed remarks on the absurdity of virtual love, enthusiastic reactions from the technology pros and an amazing response from the dazed younger audience. This is how “RMB City Opera” went on stage on one of the most prominent international modern art events of the world, the scary bogeyman ‘Basel Art Fair’.

It certainly provoked some reactions and it left a mark among the thousands of works by more than 2,500 different artists. In a constant dialogue with its booth comrades (ranging from disparate art expressions, from Ming Wong’s ‘world cinema’ to Duan Jianyu’s ineffable daily life oil paintings) the “Opera” charmed the public with its unique conjugation of entertaining aspects and more serious and intense comments on society and individuals.

If you sat down for a while and just listened to the music, you could almost feel surrounded by these glorious Red Army soldiers of the old Chinese ballets and fly over Basel skyline hand in hand with a charming black costumed Neo.

Look up to the sky next time you’re in Switzerland, you may see me flying with China Tracy and a bunch of awesome dancers from our second world!

see full article at http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2010/06/live-nude-avatars.html#more

In her opening remarks, China Tracy mused: “RMB City began on the premise of distance: between first life and second life; between real people and avatars; between realities that penetrate dreams and dreams that project onto realities; between visible and invisible, between you and me.”

Is there a distance between our bodies and ourselves? Naked Idol encouraged its participants to attempt to bridge that gap, and the result was many an exposed, uncensored, creative soul. Our grand prize winner, Vivienne Graves, was adorned with tattoos and a pair of cat legs. When asked about her inspiration for her naked skin, as well as how it feels different to be naked than otherwise, she remarked “I identify with a lot of traits that are considered ‘feline’: independence, curiosity, playfulness…and the avatar is a way to represent that….as a catgirl it’s possibly more an expression of something a bit feral and untamed?”

Well said, Vivienne. Our first runner-up, Molly Montale, fit right into RMB City with a high-tech, shiny, glittery skin with Chinese characters scrolling across it. She explained that her “nakedness” was representative of “21st century China”, in that the country has “the advantage to move strongly into the future”. Our second runner-up, Ford Roffo, took a decidedly Simian approach. His monkey suit avatar skin provided some laughs, and lots of inspiration, when he explained “I am already a human in RL, why come in here where I can be ANYTHING in the world, and a lot not in this world, and just choose to be a human again?”

Congratulations to all of our excellent, and stunning, naked participants: Jose Ravenheart, Storm Vayander, najlah Jewell, Tersa Vella, Vax Sirnah, Pussycat Catnap, Nella Boccara, GoSpeed Racer, Sonya Swindlehurst, Eleri Ethaniel. Finally, thanks to our three judges, who didn’t look so bad in the nude either, if I do say so myself!

We encourage you all to go untamed!

Group Shot! Naked Idol in RMB City: Prize Winners and Judges

Grand Prize Winner Vivienne Graves

Naked Idol Competitors (Face the Judges)

Great Ass!

Second Runner-Up Ford Roffo

Stay tuned for more information…

Don’t forget to join RMB City Naked Contest next June 13, 2010 (8pm SLT) in People’s Park (RMB City 3 105, 129, 22)!!!

You can start enrolling in the competition by joining the ‘Naked Idol’ SL group.

Don’t miss the chance to become the ultimate RMB City Naked Idol!

RMB City is holding a Naked Contest in SL.
On June 13, 2010 (8pm SLT) come naked. Naked could be anything! Undressed or overexposed. Highly costumed or almost invisible.

The winner wins 30000 L$
Judging panel: Hamlet Au, Rodion Resistance & China Tracy

‘Naked Idol’ is a statement of freedom. We want you to:

• UNDRESS YOUR IMAGINATION
• SET YOUR AVATAR FREE
• COME NAKED THE WAY YOU FEEL YOU ARE

Rules:

1. Join the “Naked Idol” Second Life group!
2. Come to People’s Park (RMB City 3 105, 129, 22 (Mature)) on June 13, 2010, 8pm SLT.
3. After assembling in People’s Park, the Naked flash mob will travel to five sites in RMB City for a naked dance. Our panel of judges will select the best naked avatar.
4. The fight for the ultimate Naked Idol will be held in People’s Park, where the selected avatars will be asked to perform their personal Naked Show
5. May the best avatar win!
6. As a hailing homage to our winner we will finally hold a SL naked tour outside RMB City