Arts |‘This is My City’ festival returns with ‘a more mature approach’

The cultural event “This is My City” will return this year from tomorrow to December 12 for its ninth edition in Macau, showcasing a number of creative activities such as workshops, conferences, performances and creative installations. The multicultural event has been organized by the cultural association +853 since 2007 and focuses on four key aspects: creativity, innovation, urban culture and technology.
Last year the event assumed the format of a festival, under the new branding title of “This is My City – The Creative Festival”, providing a platform for creative works made both locally and around the world.
According to the organizers, the festival format assumes “a more mature approach” to discussing and presenting the creative industries, aiming to help implement such industries in Macau.
Pecha Kucha Night, an event for young designers to network and showcase their work, will return to the cultural festival this year. The event is famous for its format, which mandates that presentations should have 20 slides, each of which must be shown for 20 seconds. Organizers say that the format “keeps things moving at a rapid pace.”
The short movie screening session is also returning this year, on November 24. Intending to replicate the nostalgic atmosphere of an open air “Cinema Paradiso”, “This is My City” will be screening a selection of short movies curated by António Vale Conceição.
Other events across the festival will include the “Hackathon 2015” – a one-day event in which programmers and designers collaborate on prototype solutions to urban problems. Each team is required to propose a possible alternative or change to the cities in which we live.
A feature of this year’s event will be the “Instameet,” which seeks to bring together and celebrate ‘instagrammers’ from Macau, Hong Kong and China, in order to “explore Macau’s urban landscape” through the use of the social network. The event will take place on November 28 at the Macau Design Centre.
Other events covered at “This is My City” will include a “Luso Design Show”, a creative economies conference, many musical performances, and a workshop and public lecture by Angola-born composer Victor Gama. The workshop and public lecture will be held on December 11 and 12 respectively. Staff reporter