Asia's first global museum of visual culture, in a Herzog and de Meuron building with a screen on the side of it.
M+ opened in November 2021 in the West Kowloon Cultural District, and is the first museum in Asia devoted to twentieth- and twenty-first-century visual culture — a deliberately broad remit taking in art, design, architecture and moving image together rather than separately.
The building
Herzog and de Meuron, with TFP Farrells and Arup: a horizontal slab of galleries with a vertical tower rising from it, in dark green ceramic tile, forming an inverted T.
It is built over the Airport Express rail tunnel, and rather than avoid the problem the architects exposed it — the Found Space in the basement is a raw concrete gallery formed by the tunnel’s structure, and it is one of the best rooms in the building.
The tower’s harbour-facing side is a 65-metre LED screen integrated into the ceramic louvres, showing commissioned works after dark. It is visible across the water.
The collection
Around 8,000 works, of which the foundation is the Sigg Collection — over 1,500 works of Chinese contemporary art donated in 2012 by Uli Sigg, the Swiss businessman and former ambassador who collected systematically from the late 1970s onwards.
It is generally regarded as the most comprehensive collection of Chinese contemporary art anywhere, covering periods and artists that were not being collected inside China at the time.
Beyond that: Hong Kong art and design, Japanese Metabolist architecture, Asian graphic design, moving image, and a substantial architecture and design holding including complete interiors — the Kuramata sushi bar from Tokyo is reconstructed in the galleries.
The context
M+ opened into a changed political environment. The National Security Law came into force in June 2020, and questions were raised in the legislature about whether certain works in the Sigg Collection — particularly those referencing Tiananmen — could be displayed.
The museum stated that it complies with the law. Some works from the collection have not been shown; the museum has not published a list. Coverage of this at the opening was extensive and the situation continues to be discussed.
That is worth knowing as context. The museum as it stands is genuinely major and the collection on display is very substantial.
Practicalities
Ticketed, with the permanent collection at a modest price and special exhibitions extra. Free entry has applied on certain days and to Hong Kong residents in some schemes — check current arrangements.
Allow three to four hours; it is large and the pacing is slow.
Closed Mondays. There is a roof garden with a harbour view, a bookshop and several cafés.
Kowloon station exit E, then ten minutes. The Palace Museum is a few minutes further and the Xiqu Centre is at the eastern end of the district.
More Museums
Hong Kong Palace Museum
Nine hundred objects on long loan from Beijing's Forbidden City, in a building shaped like an inverted ritual vessel.
Hong Kong Museum of History
Four hundred million years in eight galleries, from the Devonian to the handover, with a full-size fishing junk in the middle.
Tai Kwun
The former Central Police Station, magistracy and prison, restored into a free arts and heritage complex.