Wu Shanzhuan (b. 1960, Zhoushan) founded “Red Humor” in 1985, one of the key groups in the ’85 New Wave Art Movement in China, and “Red Humor International” in 1990. Since 1991, he has been creating works and organizing exhibitions in collaboration with Inga Svala Thórsdóttir. In June 2008, the Guangdong Museum of Art organized a large-scale retrospective on Wu Shanzhuan, “Wu Shanzhuan: Red Humor International,” which was named one of the best solo exhibitions of the year in Asia by Art Forum.

Wu describes himself as a criminal, an intermediary, a tourist and a laborer. His body of work is a combination of grassroots wisdom, intellectual practice and the absurd spirit of contemporary art. The work he creates are not so-called artworks but rather “Wu’s Things.” From the large number of “Wu’s Things” made in the early 1990s, we see a desire for complete openness and “transcending boundaries.” He is deeply obsessed with mathematics and logic, and over the past twenty years, he has used the formulas “pseudo-words,” “thing’s right(s),” “parthenogenesis,” “secondhand water,” “tourist information,” “perfect bracket,” and “bird before peace,” all of which are “useless truths,” to weave his personal ideology. This ideology constitutes a profound critique to the system of concepts and experiences that we are accustomed to.

In the era when conceptual art generally faces a rethink, his works attest a vibrancy of concept and the power of thoughts. It is a rich collection of intriguing humor and sharp wit, spontaneous anti-metaphysical actions, insights into everyday politics, sensitivity to invisible workings of power systems and adherence to the fundamental state of democracy.

In 2010, Wu Shanzhuan joined the Ho Chi Minh Trail on-site organized by the Long March Project and is a dedicated collaborator of ICAST. In 2012, he participated in the ICAST workshop Capital: Film Action.