Why is M+ so special?
Located in the West Kowloon Cultural District, M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture, officially opened in 12 November 2021. The M+'s Collections come from Hong Kong, Greater China, Asia and around the world, covering the three disciplines of visual arts, design and architecture, and moving image, as well as the thematic area of Hong Kong's visual culture.
Designed by a global team of the world-renowned architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron in partnership with TFP Farrells and Arup, the M+ building occupies a total floor area of 65,000 square meters with 33 galleries covering a 17,000-square-metre exhibition space. Most galleries are arranged on a large podium level on the second floor offering visitors a fluid, interconnected experience of the exhibitions. The building defines a visual dialogue with the urban landscape of Hong Kong, with its concrete structures clad in ceramic tiles that reflect the changing conditions of light and weather. The building’s facade also features an LED system for the display of M+ collections and commissioned works, making a distinctive contribution to the city’s vibrant night-time environment.
What to see at M+?
Visual culture
Apart from the eminent architecture, M+ brings major breakthroughs to the mode of display and the curated collections, defining contemporary art with a new perspective. While traditional museums focus on exhibiting, collecting, and analysing, M+ serves as the artist square for creative interaction and social connection, opening the space for public participation. Curated contents in M+ extend from the traditional visual arts to visual culture, encompassing popular culture, internet culture, and technology-oriented methods of expression. With Hong Kong visual culture being the core of the M+ Collections, architecture sketches and models, graphic designs, industrial goods, album covers, posters, video games, and more are placed alongside exhibited artworks to highlight the distinctiveness of Hong Kong.
Curated collection and special exhibition
M+ features a vast collection of over 6,000 pieces (as of June 2021). The museum’s opening displays include six thematic exhibitions with a range of mediums including visual artworks, sculptures, ink art, installations, moving image works, digital media, and more. Around 1,500 works from the M+ Collections are presented across 33 galleries and other exhibition spaces. Among the thematic exhibitions, Hong Kong: Here and Beyond — divided into four chapters, Here, Identities, Places and Beyond — retraces Hong Kong’s transformation since the post-war period, capturing the city’s unique visual culture.
The M+ Sigg Collection, an extraction from Swiss collector Uli Sigg’s private collection, is one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of contemporary Chinese art in the world. It chronicles the development of Chinese art over four decades from 1972 to 2012. The collection contains 1,510 works covering a wide range of artistic styles and mediums, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, performance, photography, and digital art. Showcasing a number of best works within the M+ Sigg Collection, the opening exhibition gallery M+ Sigg Collection: From Revolution to Globalisation looks at how international audiences have come to understand China today and captures the boldness of Chinese contemporary avant-garde artists.
Moving image
M+ features a vast collection in the field of moving image, fostering interaction with the visitors. The mediatheque on the ground floor serves as the contact point between visitors and moving image in the M+ Collections. The Grand Stair, while connecting the ground floor to the second floor, presents itself as also a public space for speeches, screenings and other activities. The Cabinet on the second floor is the site for interactive activity: as a publicly accessible art storage facility, over 200 items in the M+ Collections are dynamically showcased. Visitors are welcome to use their mobile devices to interact with the collections.