CITYA is an alternative type of international art exchange programme and exhibition between six global cities including Beijing, Hong Kong, Macao, Rome, San Francisco and Tallinn.

CITYA is an alternative type of large-scale international art exchange programme and exhibition between six global cities including Beijing, Hong Kong, Macao, Rome, San Francisco and Tallinn. It is a long-term project that will occur every three years to build collaborations between international art institutions and organizations. The project is based upon the theme of ‘City as a medium’, and revolves around the complex relationships between cities themselves, artists living and working within city contexts and the educational and city based institutional frameworks and structures for art production and display.

Four years ago, a group of curators began a discussion on the topic “City as a Medium”. The idea was inspired by social theorist Henri Lefebvre as he stated, “the art of living in the city as a work of art” in his collection of essays Right to the City.1 The exploration led to a new notion in the curators’ minds; the purpose of art is not simply to beautify the city or serve as a memento, the city in itself is a “work” of art or an oeuvre which involves citizen’s right of participation as play. Under the influence of the pandemic, people have carried on living as “global citizens” relying much more on the means of the internet. Meanwhile, they still continue to live within real physical spaces of their own cities. So how do artists reinterpret the art of living in both their own actual cities and the expanding virtual cities? What could the future of art entail when the very meaning of “city” has been transformed after the change? The exhibition invites artists to express their thoughts through their practices within the theme “City as a medium”. Artists are encouraged to interpret the same theme in post-pandemic, and whilst confronting social injustice. CITYA explores the interrelationship of spatiality between the actual space and digital space by considering the display methodologies and their effects on artistic responses.

Beijing, Hong Kong, Macao, Tallinn, Rome, San Francisco

Implementing the idea of working together via humanity as a connection between the cities, CITYA features works from 8 art organizations of 6 different cities, Works of digitally friendly mediums such as new media arts, paintings, photography and video arts will be exhibited alongside traditionally onsite displayed forms such as sculptures and installations. 
The exhibition is to create an alternative horizon of digital curation as a way of broadening awareness of the cultural landscape of these cities through contemporary art and exhibition making in the virtual art scene.

Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

Virtual Lab for Art Museum, School of Arts Administration and Education, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing

Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

1a Space, Hong Kong

Videotage, Hong Kong

Centre for Arts and Design, University of Macau, Macao

Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn

Fine Arts Academy of Rome, Rome

Art and Design Department, University of California, Berkeley Extension, San Francisco

Due to the epidemic, the physical exhibition will be open to a limited extent. If you are interested in visiting the exhibition on-site, please fill in the form of TWO-day in advance. Due to the limited number of daily visits, the school will notify successful enrollees by email no later than 10 a.m. on the day of the visit with a QR code to enter the campus. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

**HKBU Students and staffs may enter the exhibition after registration without QR code email.