Surrogate Citybike Station

Surrogate Citybike Station 2015-17
Concrete, metal
Permanent installation at Museum of contemporary Art in Krakow

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the last years shared-bike systems are thriving in postmodern cities throughout the world. Bicycles in general seem to be the adequate solution for a lot of contemporary problems like traffic jam and pollution, moreover improving the health of people. Citybike systems demand a grown-up society. People who leave their cars behind. Biking lanes. It requires to pass on some archaic-capitalistic basic instincts. Instead of riding a private bike, using a standardized, collective vehicle. In reality Citybikes exist also at places where it is hard to imagine someone would dare to use them (f.e. Moscow), considering the absence of biking lanes, harsh climate, rough traffic etc.
Surrogate Citybike station is made out of steel and concrete in an standardized manufacturing process – cheap but solid. The bike station isn´t made for use, but -from far- it works like an inexpensive asset of a functioning, postmodern society. It is permanently installed in front of the Museum of contemporary Art in Krakow, which consists on the adapted factory of Oskar Schindler. On this historical ground, the ambiguity about the stage of post-history being a chimera, should correspond with the Bike station being a concrete surrogate.