This exhibition asks a seemingly illogical question: could contemporary bike sharing platforms—an invention once championed but soon bankrupted—be a potential solution to the tragedy depicted in the eponymous Neo-realist movie some seventy years ago? The image of the bicycle reflects the relationship between the individual and the technical object in two different time periods. But today, who are the bicycle thieves? This group exhibition presents artworks which address labor conditions against the backdrop of technological development, economic transitions, as well as political ambitions. Using this as a starting point, The Bicycle Thieves converses with creators from various disciplines to imagine alternative systems and technological futures.
Bicycle Thieves is curated by Hanlu Zhang.
Hanlu Zhang is a writer and curator based in Shanghai. She is also editor at artforum.com.cn. Hanlu received her MA in Art History, Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013. She received second place in the “International Award for Art Criticism” in 2014 and her writing can be found on LEAP, ArtReview Asia, Flash Art, and art-agenda. In 2015, she co-curated “Nightmare of Exhibition Part II: the Two-way Theater” at the Power Station of Art, Shanghai. She has also curated exhibitions at No Longer Empty and 49B Studios in New York, Yang Art Museum and 798 Photo Gallery in Beijing, among other spaces. Zhang is interested in art as public sphere, and she has participated in multiple collaborative projects/platforms such as OnPractice and Theater 44.
Zhang’s curatorial proposal for Bicycle Thieves was chosen from an international pool of submissions made as part of Para Site’s annual Emerging Curators programme, now in its fifth year. The programme offers full access to the institution’s resources and network, in supporting the development and presentation of the curator’s exhibition on site.