Every city has a mayor, and there is no exception for RMB City, a city that exists in the crevice between reality and virtuality, and exchanges different values of the two different worlds. We regard our mayor as a leader for RMB City, but not a manipulator. What we expect from our mayor is a change that he or she initiates, maybe something better, maybe something worse, but nothing stagnant. During each mayor’s three-month term of office, we hope you can witness the transformation in a perspective of virtual virtuality.
Ulli Sigg [January 10 – April 17, 2009] (SL: UliSigg Cisse). Born in 1946 in Switzerland, Uli Sigg is famous for his impressive collection of Chinese contemporary Art. The former Swiss ambassador to China showed his enthusiasm in Chinese art through various activities including introducing Chinese art into Venice Biennale, setting up CCAA (Chinese Contemporary Art Awards) and acting as a matchmaker between Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei for the building of Bird’s Nest (Beijing National Stadium).
Alan Lau [April 17 – August 2, 2009] (SL: AlanLau Nirvana). Born in 1974 in Hong Kong, Alan Lau lived in Canada and studied in the UK, he is currently a partner with an international consulting firm. For the past ten years, Alan Lau has lived out of a suitcase and he uses economics and art as his portals to see and understand the world around him.
Blog: http://alanlau999.blogspot.com/
Jerome Sans [August 2 – November, 2009] (SL: SuperConcierge Cristole). Born in 1960, Jerome Sans is Director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing, and cultural curator for the hotel chain Le Meridien. He co-founded the innovative Palais de Tokio museum in Paris in 2002, and served as its co-director until 2006, and has curated numerous exhibitions worldwide. He is a singer and songwriter as a member of the rock band Liquid Architecture (http://www.liquidarchitecture.fr/cat/news)
Erica Dubach [January 10, 2010 – Now] (E3A Digital). Born in 1969 in Switzerland, Erica Dubach travels the digital world in search of the new and interesting, both professionally and personally. As E3a Digital in Second Life, she has connected the virtual world to the real world using RFID technology. RMB City is destined to achieve the same leap in the context of art. As Erica in Real Life, she is a PhD candidate at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich) since February 2007, and a senior researcher in the Auto-ID Lab University of St. Gallen / ETH Zürich since February 2009.