Zheng Bo's Weed Party III Explores Plant Sexuality at PAV Turin

The PAV – Parco Arte Vivente in Turin opens its new exhibition season with Zheng Bo's first solo show in Italy, 'Weed Party III', curated by Marco Scotini. The exhibition, conceived specifically for the PAV, features the site-specific installation 'After Science Garden' in the greenhouse, developed in collaboration with researchers from the Piedmont region. This is the third chapter of the 'Weed Party' series, following editions at Leo Xu Projects in Shanghai (2015) and TheCube Project Space in Taipei (2016). The show metaphorically investigates the relationship between spontaneous political movements, activists, and the invasive power of parasitic hierarchies and hegemonies. A key element is the 'Pteridophilia' film series, which caused a stir at Manifesta 2018 in Palermo, depicting young 'eco-queer' individuals engaging intimately with ferns in a Taiwanese forest, exploring carnal sexuality and elemental eroticism. The exhibition also includes drawings reinterpreting historical herbariums and a utopian maquette titled 'A Chinese Communist Garden in Paris'. Zheng Bo's work rejects traditional cultural conditioning, seeking ecstasy through free vital contamination.