Riding Modern Art brings together a collection of 70 black-and-white photographs of people skateboarding on sculptures located in public spaces. By studying the processes of appropriation and reuse of artworks in public spaces—where skaters find new challenges for their sport—Raphaël Zarka proposes a way of approaching artwork that highlights the dynamism of modern sculpture. In doing so, he sheds a new critical light on the notion of movement in these works, which are often abstract and geometric, inspired by Cubism, Futurism, or Constructivism.
The way the skater approaches the sculpture—more mechanical than conceptual—reveals the variety of movements it seeks to suggest. Although it is not possible to "freeze" or represent movement in a solid form (it cannot be sculpted), it nevertheless constitutes an essential element of the work, as does space. In this way, the skater's body becomes a choreographic form upon a sculptural form; the presence of a human body on the artwork transforms it, changing it from an object placed on a pedestal into a living sculpture.

Some images are missing from this collection, as certain sculptors refused to have their works reproduced. The spaces intended for these photographs deliberately remain empty.