EMOTION FORECAST // OPEN SKY PROJECT MAURICE BENAYOUN
Biography Artist, theorist and curator, Maurice Benayoun is a pioneering figure in the field of New Media Art. MoBen’ s work freely explores media boundaries, from virtual reality to large-scale public art installations. Winner of Ars Electronica Golden Nica in 1998. Maurice Benayoun work is now dedicated to urban media art and Critical Fusion.
Professor at School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.
Talk The Open Sky Project in Hong Kong: artists fighting for the skyline.
In 2012, we started with the US artist Jim Campbell the Open Sky Project on the highest tower in Hong Kong, the ICC Tower, which happens to hold one of the biggest urban screens in the world with a 70 000 m2 surface. This is the beginning of a rich though complex and rather controversial relation with the institutions, the artists and the art students. We know now that hacking the skyline is not an easy job.
Emotions and Critical Fusion in the urban landscape.
For the past 15 years I have been working on urban media art improving the concept of Critical Fusion: the mix of fiction and reality to decipher the world. From Watch Out! In Seoul 2002, to NeORIZON( Shanghai 2008), E-Scape Today!( Seoul, 2012), Occupy wall Screens( NYC, 2012), Emotions Forecast( Paris, NY, Berlin … 2011 +) or Cosmopolis in 2005( Beijing, ChongQing …), I explored the ambiguous position of the artist in the public space, contributing or challenging the economy of attention.