Self-Propelled - or how the Bicycle moves us

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But most of all the exhibition is about movement per se: the curator explores the theme in sections such as “The Discovery of Mechanical Movement”, “Movement in Sport”, “Social Movements” “Emotionally in Motion” and the “Future of Locomotion”: because people on one hand move themselves through the bicycle, just as the bicycle moves people — and not least emotionally. The show puts the bicycle into focus as a mirror to its age, when it investigates its significance for the workers’ and women’s movements, also for hippies, who revolutionised the bicycle as a sport with their forerunners to the mountain bike. Today, as well, it is its autonomy that enables the bicycle to make a political statement — for instance when participants in the Critical Mass event pedal through town in order to demonstrate for more rights for the bike in city traffic.

Digital scenarios and mobile, rideable bicycle installations help to kick the show into top gear. An accompanying programme plans additional activities such as the “Pillnitz Summer Sundays” with guided tours, children’s workshops and street food from the vending bike, a bicycle collection campaign for refugees; also lectures and bike expeditions.