2026 “Fortune on Horseback” Public Art Mural Project, Xinzhuang Transit Hub

In 2026, Bin Feng’s public art project Fortune on Horseback was installed in the underground pedestrian passage of TODTOWN at Xinzhuang Station, Shanghai. As one of the city’s major transportation hubs, Xinzhuang serves nearly 300,000 commuters each day. Large numbers of people pass through, transfer, and move between work and daily life, making the site a highly dynamic public space defined by constant movement and repetition.

The project draws on two key visual elements from Chinese culture: the zodiac horse and traditional Chinese coins. Through Feng’s contemporary Haipai Gongbi language, these familiar symbols are reinterpreted within a contemporary urban context. The horse suggests energy, movement, and forward momentum, while the coin motifs connect traditional cultural memory with a new visual vocabulary.

Installed within a passage primarily designed for circulation and efficiency, the work brings art directly into the everyday routines of commuters. Rather than requiring a visit to a museum or gallery, the work is encountered naturally while walking, transferring trains, going to work, or returning home.

Its vivid imagery and continuous composition interrupt the repetitive rhythm of the transit environment, offering pedestrians a brief visual pause within the speed of daily movement. At the same time, traditional Chinese imagery enters contemporary urban life in a direct and accessible way.

Fortune on Horseback is therefore not simply an artwork placed in a public space. It explores how art can become part of the infrastructure of everyday life—continuously encountered, passed by, and experienced by people moving through the city.