Beyond the Screens: City Digital Skin Art Festival (CDSA) 2024
Post: Expanding Horizons — Large-Scale LED Public Art at CDSA 2024
Overview
In October, we (Mark Chavez & Ina Conradi) participated as a guest artist duo at the CDSA 2024 festival. Our contributions to Asia’s evolving large-scale LED public art landscape are rooted in a decolonial approach to digital culture—never merely aesthetic, but committed to re-imagining urban space as a digital canvas and reframing dominant narratives in visual culture.
Organized by the China Academy of Art (CAA) in Hangzhou, CDSA 2024 brought together a network of esteemed institutions including Public Art Lab Berlin, Bauhaus University Weimar, Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Politecnico di Milano, MEET Digital Culture Center, and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Spanning 11 urban screens across nine cities and five countries, the festival provided a platform for dialogue among artists, audiences, and scholars.
Exhibitions and screenings began in Milan, Paris, and Singapore with site-specific works that engaged the public through immersive storytelling. The program then moved to Hangzhou, Beijing, and other cities across Asia. Across these vibrant LED surfaces—often dominated by commercial media—CDSA foregrounded narratives of diversity, interconnectedness, and resilience.
A decolonial perspective informs our work, embracing entropy not as chaotic breakdown but as a regenerative force that challenges linear, Eurocentric notions of progress. We invite viewers to pause and consider the fluid interplay between order and disorder.
Academic sharing sessions complemented the visual program at venues including Shanghai Theatre Academy (Changlin Campus), China Academy of Art (Hangzhou), and the Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing). Students and professionals engaged directly with artists and scholars at the intersection of media art, urban space, and decolonial thought.
By the close of CDSA 2024, large-scale public art stood out as more than spectacle: it challenged conventions, bridged cultures, and fostered a shared sense of humanity. Audiences play a crucial role in this evolving story—helping shape a future where public art remains accessible, transformative, and resonant with diverse histories and experiences.
Singapore — Media Art Nexus (NTU)
Two works from the Echo series premiered in Singapore. At Media Art Nexus (NTU)—a 15-meter LED screen embedded in the campus hub seen by approximately 5,000 students daily—our experimental animations invited new conversations around entropy and interconnectedness. This screening marked the Singapore launch of CDSA 2024.
Premiere of Echoes on Media Art Nexus (NTU), LED 15 m × 2 m, Singapore — 18 October 2024. Photography by Quek Jia Liang.
Singapore — Ten Square (Landmark of Good)
The second work, Memories, was exhibited at Ten Square (Landmark of Good) on a 21 m × 14.4 m LED façade—Singapore’s “car vending machine” structure—introducing our practice to a broader urban audience within the city’s central streetscape.
Premiere of Echoes at Ten Square, Singapore — LED 21 m × 14.4 m — 18 October 2024. Photography by Quek Jia Liang.
China — Hangzhou & Beijing
From 21–29 November, we expanded the concept of entropy at monumental scale on the Federation of Trade Unions CC West Lake Canopy in Hangzhou, at the intersection of Yan’an Road and Hubin Pedestrian Street (Shangcheng District). The 170 m × 19 m canopy served as a powerful canvas for contemplating entropy as a metaphor for the layered cultural, social, and environmental interactions shaping urban space.
We also presented two works from Whispers at The Veil in Beijing’s Wukesong Commercial Complex—an iconic media architecture site committed to immersive and accessible public art.
Echoes at the Federation of Trade Unions CC West Lake Canopy, Hangzhou — 22 October 2024. Photo by Ina Conradi.
Through these animated artworks, we aim to create moments of contemplation within the rhythm of everyday life—encouraging viewers to notice cycles of order and chaos in both natural and urban environments. Bringing a decolonial lens to digital public art expands the conversation, reclaiming entropy as growth through transformation and interconnectedness across cultures.
Curatorial Context
The Digital City Skin Art (CDSA) Festival was initiated by the School of Sculpture and Public Art at the China Academy of Art (Hangzhou) and realized in Europe in cooperation with the Connecting Cities Network (Berlin). The curatorial program was developed by Prof. Yuelai Ruan (CAA). Susa Pop, Artistic Director of Public Art Lab Berlin and the Connecting Cities Network, lectures at Bauhaus University Weimar (Department of Media Architecture). Assoc. Prof. Ina Conradi-Chavez is on faculty at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore).
Exhibition Videos
Echoes, Whispers, and Memories — exhibition excerpt
Exhibition movie of Echoes, Whispers, and Memories (Vimeo)
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