The +853 Association emerges in 2006, a historic moment when the city is going through a process of opening up and speedy transformation. The opening to the global world, marked by the new liberal gaming policy and the classification by Unesco of the Historic Center of Macau as World Heritage marked two moments particularly intense in the social and urban landscape of Macau. These are two forces especially powerful and, apparently, in opposition but still converging in the same horizon of turbulence and speed which would affect the way of living and the common imaginary of the city.

It is in this context that the +853 Association aims to rescue the local and particular dimensions, and still symbolic, recurring to the first program of theoretical reflexion as well as to a praxis of resistance to the hegemony of a global culture.

Then and now again, the purpose here is to try to produce new contra-hegemonic feelings and possibilities that might give back the urban experience new configurations of the public sphere, while formulating new approaches in terms of gatherings and commonness. In brief, to produce a community. Hence the justification of the program “This Is My City,” which in its several editions has been putting together an array of artistic practices, reflexions, workshops and debates around the idea of space and time – time of the cities, but also of its counterpart, the rural areas, in its more specific and local dimension, and the hybridism born of both – and the virtuoso dialogue produced in the interstices of these two categories.

Since 2007, the “Cultural Association +853” has been organizing and promoting an event called “THIS IS MY CITY” which has, throughout the years, evolved into the “THIS IS MY CITY –The Creative Festival”. This yearly Festival aggregates several types of activities such as workshops, conferences, exhibitions, creative installations, creative residencies, performances, and music concerts.

The Festival is a multidisciplinary and multicultural event focusing on four key aspects: Creativity, Innovation, Urban Culture, and Technology.

Its program comprises of several sessions that are grouped into 4 sets of activities: Educational Actions (workshops and conferences), Exhibitions (exhibitions and installations), Performances (concerts and shows) and Creative Residencies (creative and artistic interchange programs between Macau and foreign countries).

The year (2014) marks the 8th edition of “THIS IS MY CITY”, the year when the event openly assumes itself as a festival, The Creative Festival, possibly the only festival, in Macau, showcasing and aimed at the Creative Industries universe as a whole.