Art

M+ Museum, art building site in Hong Kong

Swiss diplomat and collector Uli Sigg's donation of 1450 works including more than 300 artists is on display

30 July 2024

3' min read

The ambitions of Hong Kong's premier museum are trying to come of age. The M+ Museum is now the major attraction of West Kowloon's burgeoning cultural district. Not for nothing in its gravitational shadow is also the headquarters of Phillips, the dynamic auction house that has always been very careful about the strategic choice of its locations.

A construction site and a building site of art and politics, the discovery of the M+ (i.e. Museum and much more) is a winning bet first and foremost for the play of proportions between architectural and exhibition spaces; a synthesis not always successful in the category of modern museum environments, as the recent examples of Berlin, Rome and Moscow demonstrate.

Herzog & de Meuron and Farrells

The project signed by Herzog & de Meuron and Farrells has balance, perhaps due to the familiarity of these emblazoned firms with the practice of transit-oriented development, i.e. the integration of public transport as an essential element of architectural design. Same logic for the interior. The works and installations, simply put, do not get lost inside the museum, but can enjoy their rightful ease, and so can the visitors.

As for the collections, it is very relative, although dense and vibrant, because one of the museum's fundamental nuclei comes from the renowned Uli Sigg, a Swiss diplomat and collector who donated no less than 1450 works from his private collection of Chinese art comprising more than 300 artists to M+. Among the most interesting works are those by Gu Dexin, Zhang Huan, Liu Wei, Wang Wei and Li Songsong.

A powerful extract that Sigg consciously wanted to be in Hong Kong, where non-alignment to the People's Republic is a decisive, albeit dialectical, factor for freedom of expression. And it is no coincidence that an artist such as Ai Weiwei has several works here that are otherwise opposed in Beijing.

M+ Museum a Hong Kong
Photogallery11 foto

Ai Weiwei

Between obedience to the law and the unwritten laws of art, and despite Ai Weiwei's anathema (i.e.: being able to resist censorship is the only way for the museum to fulfil its ambitions of world stature), M+ is certainly today and will be in the future the sun map of many instances, not only artistic. A charm, albeit uncomfortable, that adds to the allure of a mesmerising destination.

Art, in Hong Kong, is, moreover, held in the highest regard. As proof, the iconic five-star luxury air carrier, Cathay Pacific, has a specific programme dedicated to fine art. The works of emerging artists (Stephen Wong, Tobe Kan, Victor Wong and Chan Keng Tin) even adorn the in-flight cabins, creating a synchronisation between the excellence of in-flight services and pleasure for the eyes. The liaison with M+ is clear: in the design section, works by collectives and studios cross paths with Cathay several times. Neco Neon's image 'Fly Cathay Pacific' represents not only the aesthetic summa of vintage applied to the fabulous design of the 1950s and 1960s, but above all a piece of identity history with which the metropolis has been uniquely identified for almost eighty years.

There is no shortage of irony from Sun Yuan and Peng Yu with Old People's Home to capture the audience's attention. An old people's home made up of wheelchairs colliding with each other, a dynamic photograph of a material and cheeky third age, which never moves to compassion. In Hong Kong, trivial thoughts and things have no future.