Hou Hanru Hou Hanru’s landmark ‘‘Cities on the Move’’ (1997), a sprawling manifesto of a show that Hou organized with the Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, brought many Chinese — but also Thai, Korean and Indonesian — artists into the global mainstream. In 1999, Hou found himself in the spotlight when he became the first foreigner to curate the French pavilion at Venice and then went on to direct the first international biennial on Chinese soil in Shanghai in 2000. He and Obrist reunited to organize the second Guangzhou Triennial in his native Pearl River Delta (the region that includes Guangzhou and Hong Kong) from 2004 to 2006. At Venice this summer, his Chinese pavilion will show the work of four female artists, and his Istanbul Biennial exhibition — organized from his new teaching post at San Francisco Art Institute, where he is also the director of exhibitions — will open in September. (photo Song Chao) (courtesy www.nytimes.com)