On the occasion of the annual Illy Prize , and in conjunction with Artissima 2020 , Castello di Rivoli presents the winner of the 2019 edition of the Illy Present Future award , aaajiao (Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, 1984), one of the most innovative artists and interested in the world of the web.

The prize was awarded to the Chinese artist by an international jury composed of Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev , director of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Stefan Kalmár, executive director and curator of the ICA - Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and Agustin Pérez Rubio, curator of the 2020 Berlin Biennale with the following motivation: “The jury unanimously rewards the Chinese artist aaajiao who lives virtually between Berlin and Shanghai for his commitment to the exploration of subjectivity in the present time. Originally a computer programmer, this activist, multimedia artist and blogger has developed a body of work that translates and obscures the legibility of identity in order to question the normative expectations of the digitized self ”.

Recently aaajiao's work Bits of Information No. 1–16 (Bit di information n. 1-16, 2015) was exhibited at the Castello di Rivoli as part of the exhibition In front of the collector. The Uli Sigg Collection of Chinese Contemporary Art.