089 - 23|01|09

LACOSTE, France – Cao Fei’s (SL: China Tracy) Second Life world, “RMB City,” has already drawn worldwide attention for its entertaining and often ironic depiction of a contemporary Chinese city. A new project, and collaboration with Hong-Kong-based Map Office, within Fei’s virtual city titled “NO LAB” continues her work with a stark, politically charged multimedia presentation depicting New Orleans being flooded by Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge and the aftermath that followed. Based on Map Office’s research and drawings about post-Katrina New Orleans, the “NO LAB” parcel of “land” is a similar investigation into the landscape (physical, cultural, historical) of this unique city.

Fei’s and Map Office’s interactive exhibition “NO LAB” will makes its European debut—and only its second global showing—at La Galerie Pfriem, Rue Trophime, Lacoste, France, Jan. 12-March 15. A vernissage is scheduled Jan. 17, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Both the exhibition and the vernissage are free and open to the public.

In “NO LAB” Fei and Map Office, an interdisciplinary design and research platform conceived by French architect-artists Laurent Gutierrez and Valerie Portefaix, present an urban landscape of line drawings and first-hand impressions of post-Katrina New Orleans. As a virtual flood sweeps over the city, avatars of individuals closely involved in the recovery effort appear, including U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, actors and directors Brad Pitt and Spike Lee and media mogul Oprah Winfrey, who greet the visitor’s avatar. The result is an environment comprised of the virtual and the real, in multiple variations, synthesized together.

The project made its worldwide debut in November 2008 at Prospect.1 New Orleans Biennial, and following the Lacoste exhibition, will travel to Atlanta and Savannah, Ga. The exhibition is site specific and will change slightly as it travels from location to location to provide a different perspective tailored to the gallery and viewer.