After a long wait, the highly anticipated M+ Visual Culture Museum will finally open next week! Before the opening, let us take you on a tour of the interior of the M+ building, highlighting the architectural design, opening exhibitions, and featured items, so you can grasp the 3 main highlights of the venue before entering officially!
1. Architecture Design and Popular Photo Spots
The 65,000 square meter M+ building is designed by the global team of the world-renowned architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with TFP Farrells and Ove Arup. Upon entering the museum’s underground lobby from the main entrance, the central space of M+ is iconic because of the design that allows natural light to shine through the courtyard windows, illuminating the interior and extending all the way to the basement “subterranean” space.
“The Void” is supported by 5 giant steel branches, and the concrete design gives the basement a simple industrial style. The “Light Court Corridor” is composed of giant openings on the floor and skylights, connecting the basement, underground, and platform floors. Whether from top to bottom or from bottom to top, you can feel the grandeur of the entire building and museum, and the vast space allows for great angles to be captured in every corner.
On the second floor, you will find the main exhibition halls, including the “West Exhibition Hall,” “East Exhibition Hall,” “South Exhibition Hall,” “Hik Exhibition Hall,” “Focus Space,” “Box,” and “Courtyard Exhibition Hall.” In addition to enjoying the exhibitions on this floor, the attention-grabbing spiral staircase in the atrium is also quite notable. The spiral design gives the staircase a modern and stylish feel, attracting many people to stop and take photos.
Exiting outdoors, everyone will come to the Seafront Promenade and the Grand Staircase. The Grand Staircase is a wide and open public space that can be open to the outside for visitors to freely gather, or completely closed off to become a flexible lecture hall for hosting speeches, screenings, and other events. Here, you can see the magnificent Victoria Harbour and the artistic park landscape within the West Kowloon Cultural District.
2. Opening exhibition of 6 themes
The opening exhibition of the museum consists of 6 thematic exhibitions, showcasing various key areas of the M+ collection, including visual art works, moving image works, design pieces, architectural projects, and archival collections collected by the museum since 2012.
One of the opening exhibitions, “Hong Kong: Here and Beyond,” showcases the various changes that Hong Kong has experienced from the post-war period to the present through personal and collective histories. The exhibition is divided into four sections – Here, Identity Interpretation, Place, and Beyond, presenting Hong Kong’s visual culture from multiple perspectives. Many familiar local artists’ names can be seen, including Tsang Tsou Choi, Stanley Wong, Kong Kee, Lau Siu Hong, and Leung Mei Ping.
The other exhibition “Objects · Spaces · Interactions” showcases over 500 furniture, architectural, graphic art, and other design works manufactured in Asia and influenced by it over the past 70 years.
Exhibition “M+ Sigg Collection: From the Big Revolution to Globalization” will select fine pieces from the M+ Sigg Collection to review the development of contemporary Chinese art from the 1970s to the 2000s in chronological order.
“Individual & Origin & Expression” will explore the narrative of post-war international visual arts from an Asian perspective; “Antony Gormley: Asian Field” is a large-scale installation consisting of hundreds of thousands of clay sculptures, created collaboratively by renowned British sculptor Antony Gormley and over 300 villagers from Guangdong in 2003, reflecting the vast land and huge population of China; and “The Dream of the Museum” will explore global conceptual art from the unique Asian context constructed by M+ museum.
3. M+ acquired the independent exhibition of “Zhang Yinghai Heavy Industry” through “buyout”
Jang Young-hae Heavy Industries was founded in 1997 by South Korean artist Jang Young-hae and American artist Marc Voge. This digital art duo, based in Seoul, was a pioneer of “internet art” in the late 1990s and has been creating digital works ever since.
Before the museum was even built, M+ had already acquired the complete set of the artist’s self-retained version two (there are only two sets of the artist’s self-retained version, with the artist retaining version one). This precious collection includes a copy of all the works they have exhibited and published in the past 20 years, as well as various manuscripts, unrealized projects, and all translations of these works – some in as many as 26 languages, and still increasing, even for their future works, M+ also has ownership, thus causing controversy over the “buyout” of artworks.
The “Focus Space” is currently showcasing a cross-shaped TV installation created by Cheung Ying-hoi in 1999, titled “TV Set Nailed to the Cross – Prayers Unheard Even in Heaven”. The artwork mimics the way crosses are typically hung from the ceilings of churches, but in this case, it is installed high up in the atrium space. The exhibition space is enhanced with captivating music and beats to attract the attention of the audience.
M+ Museum announced earlier that starting from the opening day, visitors can enjoy free admission to the exhibitions (excluding special exhibitions and activities) for 12 months. Those interested in visiting can start booking online to visit the museum and participate in the free opening programs from tomorrow, November 5 (Friday). The museum is filled with architectural wonders, and the exhibitions showcase a wide range of rich collections from around the world, waiting for visitors to explore in person!
Book a visit and learn more: M+ Website
