Bring Your Own Bike #01
Westpoort, Amsterdam
- Weather
- Performance
- Bring Your Own Bike
Edition 01
What the Weather Gave Us
23 March 2024
Hembrugterrein → Westpoort,
Amsterdam, NL
12:00-13:00
14:00-15:00
8km
7°C
Strong Wind, SW 35 mph
Humidity: 82%
Air quality: Fair
The first edition of BYOB took place under a nationwide storm warning. The route ran from Hembrugterrein, a former munitions factory site in Zaandam that had been closed to the public for decades, across the North Sea Canal by ferry to Westpoort, Amsterdam’s industrial port.
Along the way, the ride passed wind turbines powering the harbour, scrap metal terminals loading compressed steel for export to Turkey, and the oil terminals of the world’s largest gasoline port. With a 35 mph headwind resisting every pedal stroke, weathering shifted from a concept to a physical condition, one the cyclists had to push through with their whole bodies. The ride traced how the militarised past and the fossil-fuelled present of the Amsterdam waterfront meet the body in the same weather.
BYOB (Bring Your Own Bike) is a participatory cycling performance series that explores polluted weather as a collective, embodied phenomenon. Participants ride their own bikes through polluted industrial areas, weathering together under the artist's guidance.
Here the bike is a speculative tool that turns the body into a sensing instrument, tuned to headwind, exhaust, and the smell of oil rising off water. Each pedal stroke is a small negotiation with the air itself, part of a communal practice where environment, socio-political climate, and the human body meet.
The performance has taken place at industrial sites across Europe and South Korea, including ports, refineries, and energy infrastructure. Each ride is shaped by the uneven atmosphere and politics of its location: who breathes what, and where, and who is even allowed to get close enough to ask.
Participating Cyclists
Fileona Dkhar · Katya Borisova · Minari Lee
Photography
Bora Sekerci
