Image included in the ATHENS LOVE monograph with photographs taken in Greece in April 2015
during Hang’s participation in the Occupy Atopos residency and exhibition.

Ren Hang participated in the Occupy Atopos Residency in spring 2015. After his residency an exhibition titled Occupy Atopos #Ren Hang, including new works of his along with older ones, was presented in the Atopos’ building from April 22 to June 17. Part of the images he shot during his staying in Athens and his participation in the residency are included in his book titled Athens Love.

Ren Hang was born in Changchun, a province of Jilin in China. He has presented his work through solo exhibitions in China and abroad and has participated in many international group exhibitions in museums and galleries in Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, USA and so on. Hang  has been repeatedly censored in his country and despite any adversity he chooses to live and work in Beijing. In 2013 he participated in the Beijing Photo Biennale and in the Fuck Off 2 exhibition at the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands after having been invited by artist and activist Ai Wei Wei. Works of his can be found in private and public collections in China, Russia and the USA among other countries. Furthermore, a number of photo books dedicated to his work have  been published.

The avant-garde and radical, photographic work of 28-year-old Ren Hang is pervaded by  intense lyricism and eroticism. Hang strips his friends/models bare and creates a number of original, provocative, diaristic narratives where youthfulness and sensuality constitute the leading elements. The human formations of the heretic artist sometimes appear indecent and offensive and other times fairy-like and refined. Shot in the modern urban landscape of Beijing, in plain rooms or in nature, his photos seem to defy the moral codes of the conservative Far East.