Watch 3144 bicycles get assembled in three minutes

Ai Weiwei's "Forever Bicycles" installation at City Hall is surely the most popular piece of Nuit Blanche-commissioned artwork since the event got started in Toronto back in 2006. Composed of 3144 bicycles, the elaborate structure has captured the attention of the city in a way that few art projects do. But how exactly was it put together? We snuck some photos of the installation process, but a new timelapse released today shows the painstaking process required to assemble the thousands of connected bicycles. Shot by Ryan Emond, who some will remember from his spellbinding work on previous sequences like Toronto Tempo and Planet Toronto, the video is fitting tribute to dazzling piece of contemporary art and the workers who brought it all together.

"Ai Weiwei has been an inspiration since my first trip to Beijing a couple years ago, after visiting Galerie Urs Meile and 798 Art Zone. I was thrilled to document such an important international artist's work," Emond explains. "The thought of the possibility of him seeing my work after being so enchanted by his was amongst my main motivations while completing the project."

Emond has an in depth description of his process on his Vimeo page, which is worth a read. And, if you haven't made a trip to see "Forever Bicycles" yet, note well that it will be installed at Nathan Phillips Square until October 27th.