All posts tagged: M+

Family having cake and coffee, overlooking a misty Victoria Harbour, from Rooftop Garden, M+, West Kowloon, Hong Kong, 12 February 2023.

Published by John Batten

After allowing free entry for the first year of its operation, M+ – Hong Kong’s new international museum – recently introduced admission charges. The museum has however maintained free access to the cinema and its outdoor areas, including the third floor rooftop garden. Positioned alongside the city’s West Kowloon harbourfront where this photograph was taken, the museum’s south elevation has uninterrupted views towards Hong Kong island and Lantau island. Recently installed moveable seating now allows visitors to flexibly find the best view and follow the sun in winter and shade in summer. The north section of the rooftop garden with views over the adjacent Palace Museum, the West Kowloon ship mooring area, Stonecutters Island and the Kowloon hills, has a wonderfully interactive installation of ‘Playscape’ sculpture by the American-Japanese artist Isamu Noguchi. Particularly loved by children and as a location for wedding photos, the sculpture can be touched and climbed on. This fundamental change in entry policy has never been openly debated. During its first year of free entry, the museum saw record numbers of visitors. Charging admission will undoubtedly impact visits made by …

M+ Matters: Conversations on Women, Architecture, and the City

Published by Artomity Magazine

M+ Matters: Conversations on Women, Architecture, and the CityOrganised with the University of Hong Kong Faculty of ArchitectureNovember 23, 2019 Miller Theatre, Asia Society Hong Kong Center9 Justice DriveAdmiraltyHong Kong #MplusMatters M+ Matters: Conversations on Women, Architecture, and the City is a joint effort between M+ and the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Architecture, which seeks to initiate public conversations in Hong Kong on the under-represented histories and contemporary realities of women in architectural production. The discussions examine the life and work of nine women and their roles in shaping the built environment in Asia, prompting the reappraisal of criteria and methods used to assess architecture. The series of dialogues brings together historians, editors, and educators to probe issues related to values and approaches in the practices of women architects between the 1950s and the 1980s—as well as the visibility of these practices. Conversations begin with a focus on Minnette de Silva (1918–1998), a pioneering woman architect in Sri Lanka; and Wang Chiu-hwa (born 1925), an architect known for her designs of libraries in Taiwan, who made a generous …

M+ presents Five Artists: Sites Encountered

Published by Artomity Magazine

Jun 7 – Oct 20, 2019Lara Almarcegui, May Fung, Lee Bul, Ana Mendieta, Charlotte PosenenskeM+ Pavilion, Art Park, West Kowloon Cultural District Tracking notions of site across multiple historical moments and artistic languages, the exhibited works include poetic expressions of the body, intense investigations into the built environment, and in one case, a direct response to the M+ site. Together, these multifaceted works display powerful connections between art and its surroundings—be they the natural environment, architectural space, urban contexts, or discursive frameworks—prompting us to rethink our relationships to place and sense of belonging in the world. A specially commissioned project by Lara Almarcegui presents a rigorous breakdown of the materials involved in the construction of the M+ building, offering a systematic expression of the transformations currently taking place at the museum’s site. With over twenty years of experience in investigating land and urban space, the artist fuses art-making with her research strategies, reflecting on unseen connections between what lies in the earth and the buildings that surround us. Ana Mendieta, a pioneering performance artist celebrated around the …

Miao Ying’s ‘Hardcore Digital Detox’, the first work in M+’s series of digital commissions

Published by Artomity Magazine

http://www.stories.mplus.org.hk M+ presents Hardcore Digital Detox, a work by Shanghai- and New York–based artist Miao Ying, commissioned expressly for the M+ Stories online platform. It explores the restricted Chinese internet—popularly known as the ‘Chinternet’—and is a ‘strategic lifestyle advice tool’ with the seemingly illogical premise of offering an online retreat from the digital world. This #spiritualretreatinchinternet parodies the widespread commodification of ‘wellness’ in Western societies, as well as the growing demand among affluent consumers for post-materialist experiences rooted in authenticity and nature—the kind that make for perfect Instagram posts. Miao considers herself a dual citizen of the Chinternet and the World Wide Web, and Hardcore Digital Detox operates in these two territories simultaneously, pitting mainstream internet users against Chinese censors by playfully instructing users to set their virtual private network (VPN) to mainland China, where popular websites and apps like Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, eBay, WhatsApp, Vimeo, and Amazon are restricted. For Miao, the images and ideas that are blocked by the Great Firewall of China are akin to liu bai (negative space) in traditional Chinese ink painting, as …

M+ Matters | Keynote: Building Louvre Abu Dhabi

Published by Artomity Magazine

December 7, 2018, 6.30pm Jockey Club Hall, Asia Society Hong Kong Center (9 Justice Drive, Admiralty, Hong Kong) http://www.westkowloon.hk In this lecture organised by M+, Manuel Rabaté, Director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, discusses the building of this twenty-first-century encyclopedic museum as ‘a museum of experimentation, and a museum of meeting points’. Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in November 2017 following a decade of planning and construction. It is the result of a collegial effort between France and the United Arab Emirates to create a visionary museum that inherits the tradition of the French institution while embracing the multicultural dynamics of the Arab world. This aspiration pervades the Jean Nouvel–designed building, which features a low-slung dome that evokes the architecture of a mosque and a mausoleum. The dome is pierced with openings and resembles interwoven palm leaves assembled into a lattice, proposing a contemporary reading of a traditional form. At the core of the museum’s mission is the notion of universal human values, which is enacted through collecting and programming activities that bridge the Louvre’s long history …

Noguchi for Danh Vo: Counterpoint

Published by Artomity Magazine

November 16, 2018 – April 22, 2019 M+ Pavilion, West Kowloon Cultural District http://www.mplus.org.hk/counterpoint M+, Hong Kong’s new museum of 20th- and 21st-century visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District, presents Noguchi for Danh Vo: Counterpoint, to be held at the M+ Pavilion from November 16, 2018 to April 22, 2019. This exhibition is a dialogue between two artists: Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988), who is a central figure in the history of modern art, design, and landscape architecture, and Vietnamese Danish artist Danh Vo (born 1975), an original voice in contemporary art practice. The exhibition articulates this conversation through a range of works by Noguchi that spans almost five decades, including drawings, industrial design objects, and sculptures in stone, metal, and other materials. Vo’s contribution to the exhibition consists not only of select examples of his practice produced between 2010 and 2018, but also of building a bridge between two institutions and two cities—M+ in Hong Kong and The Noguchi Museum in New York. The exhibition is structured as a counterpoint, a relationship …

In Search of Southeast Asia through the M+ Collections

Published by Artomity Magazine

In Search of Southeast Asia through the M+ Collections is the first exhibition to present how M+ is addressing the complex region of Southeast Asia in the building of its multidisciplinary collections. Encompassing visual art, design and architecture, and moving image works from, and about, Southeast Asia—including the nations of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—the exhibition highlights how M+ is developing a unique perspective on the region as a place that is defined by multiple narratives, histories, and identities. Featuring archival materials, architectural models, contemporary art installations, and moving image artworks, the exhibition illuminates the region’s historical and contemporary contexts as well as the flow of ideas across borders. Date: Now until 30 September 2018 Opening Hours: 11am–6pm Wednesday to Sunday and public holidays Venue: M+ Pavilion, West Kowloon Cultural District Free Admission Details: http://www.mplus.org.hk/insearchofsea Conjunction public talk: Powers at Play In conversations with M+ curators Pauline J. Yao (Lead Curator, Visual Art) and Shirley Surya (Associate Curator, Design and Architecture), the invited speakers will present how their practice …

M+ Matters: Art and Design in the Digital Realm

Published by Artomity Magazine

31 August–1 September, 2018 Web Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / #MPlusMatters M+, Hong Kong’s new museum of visual culture, is pleased to announce ‘M+ Matters: Art and Design in the Digital Realm’, to be held at Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts on Friday, 31 August and Saturday, 1 September, 2018. ‘Art and Design in the Digital Realm’ is a two-night, one-day event that brings together artists, designers, creative technologists, and curators from across Asia, Europe, and North America. Consisting of a performance, a panel discussion, a series of artist talks, and a data design hackathon, ‘Art and Design in the Digital Realm’ is M+’s most direct articulation of its commitment to fostering conversations and defining a perspective on digital visual culture today. As a museum dedicated to contemporary visual art, design and architecture, and the moving image, M+ is deeply engaged with current digital practices, with a particular focus on experiments, innovations, and critical voices from Asia. ‘Art and Design in the Digital Realm’ looks at the immense impact of digital technology …

M+ Matters: Post-1949 Visual and Material Culture in China

Published by Artomity Magazine

July 5, 2018, 6.30pm Miller Theater, Asia Society Hong Kong Center 9 Justice Dr Admiralty Hong Kong M+ Matters: Post-1949 Visual and Material Culture in China is a public talk on July 5, 2018, that considers critical issues in the first decades of the socialist state in China through a multidisciplinary lens, examining design and visual art. Bringing together three international scholars and curators, it aims to propose new ways of appraising the highly complex narratives of socialist cultural production in China, which have often been overlooked by historians. Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese state devised visual and material strategies to achieve its particular conception of socialist modernity. The talk builds on pioneering studies that contextualise and re-examine the manifestations of this modernity—often positioned as alternative or oppositional—across geographies, time, and disciplines within China’s shifting socio-economic and political frameworks. The talk consists of three presentations: Everyday Desirables: What Wristwatches, Sewing Machines, and Bicycles Can Tell Us about Mao-Era China Karl Gerth (Hwei-Chih and Julia Hsiu Endowed Chair in Chinese Studies and Professor of …

M+ Live Art: Audience as Performer

Published by Artomity Magazine

June 1–3, 2018 Goethe-Institut Hongkong 14/F, Hong Kong Arts Centre 2 Harbour Rd Wan Chai, Hong Kong Free admission. No registration is required for performance programmes. Friday, June 1, 7:30–10pm Saturday, June 2, 12–7pm Sunday, June 3, 12–5:30pm Audience as Performer is the inaugural exhibition of M+ Live Art, the museum’s first series dedicated to performance art, highlighting and unpacking the concept of the live body in visual art through compelling performances from local and international artists. Spread over three days, M+ Live Art: Audience as Performer features works by five artists from Asia who engage directly with the viewer, shifting the role of the audience from passive witness to active participant. By offering collaborations in new and open-ended works of art, the exhibition inspires the public to build social bonds through artistic production and collective action. M+ Live Art: Audience as Performer features new commissions by two Hong Kong artists, wen yau and Isaac Chong Wai, whose works express the lived experiences of the city’s inhabitants facing shifting social realities. In A Drop and Two Dots: Everything Must Go! (Homage to All Peaceful …