Bring Your Own Bike #05
Taehwa River, Ulsan
- Weather
- Performance
- Bring Your Own Bike
Edition 05
Same Road,
Different Reasons
25 October 2025
Taehwa River,
Seongnam Riverside → Reed Fields,
Ulsan, KR
14:00-16:00
10km
22°C
Light Wind, N 5 mph
Humidity: 68%
Air quality: Moderate
BYOB's first ride in South Korea, presented at U-Spectrum, followed the Taehwa River in Ulsan. Called a "river of death" in the 1960s after decades of industrial wastewater, the river is now a national garden and the city's favourite cycling route.
Citizens and artists rode upstream past sewage treatment plants, floodgates and pollution monitoring stations until the Hyundai Motor complex came into view across the water. Unlike in the port cities of earlier editions, industrial sites in Ulsan remain strictly closed off, and bike paths often end at their fences, so the distance that could not be crossed became part of what was observed.
Workers cycling to their shifts shared the same road, making the same motion for entirely different reasons. Along that riverbank, ecology, labour and art briefly occupied the same space.
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
Ahae Kim · Jinhee Yang · Jihyeon Kim · Sian Kim · Woosoo Lee · Yerin Lee
Program Assistance
Eunji Kwak · Ahae Kim
Organized by
Ulsan Cultural Tourism Foundation
Hosted by
MM
Collaboration
CLoFA
Photography
Eoming
Videography
Shinyoung Lee
