Microwave International New Media Arts Festival 2019

Description

Microwave International New Media Arts Festival began in 1996 as an annual video art festival of the local video art institution Videotage. This year’s festival includes a programme of screenings, dialogue sessions with artists, workshops and performances.

The festival opens with The Cantine Orchestra workshop, led by the presence of the Chef/artist Tapetronic. An ephemeral restaurant is made and installed in the space dedicated to the event. The construction is a DIY structure (cardboard, wooden pallets and etc.) inspired by local street food restaurants or even cocktail bars. The public is then invited to manipulate and discover a series of devices and sound machineries designed by the artist.

Apart from performing art workshops, the conference entitled “Unconference” challenges traditional formats of conference, offering rooms for speakers to communicate and interact with audience through various formats of presentations (e.g. short video screening, demonstration, performances etc.).

The main exhibition comprises a series of shows, including “New Ultimate Imperial Feasts”. As the choices we make around food consumption is increasingly seen as an environmental and social responsibility, the ethics of its production are now coming in conflict with many of the cultural traditions that surround the meals we eat. Instead of abandoning these traditions in favour of alternative lifestyle trends, the exhibition uses the history of China’s most extravagant banquets to bring cultural heritage and radical food production techniques together.