West Kowloon Cultural District Special in the Making 2016

Sheduled for opening in 2019, M+, an integral part of the West Kowloon Cultural District, positions itself as an inter-disciplinary museum of visual culture. The museum mainly collects visual artworks, designs, architecture and moving images from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Asia and all over the world from the 20th and the 21st centuries, with a view to documenting the history of visual culture wherein the current situation can come under perusal in the hope of contributing to the future. Although M+ has yet to be completed, the team behind has been building its collections proactively while broadening the visitor base, so as to wait in the wings for the coming challenge. As collections are an important component of M+, we have interviewed Mr Doryun CHONG, Deputy Director and Chief Curator of M+, and his team in order to understand how they select collections in line with the position “established in Hong Kong while engaging itself globally.” Currently, more than 1 500 pieces of M+’s collections are Chinese contemporary artworks donated by Uli Sigg, a Swiss collector, who will also explain in the programme in person the advantages Hong Kong has by being an international connection hub. With regard to broadening the visitor base, M+’s team employs a proactive strategy. It makes use of “M+ Rover”, a mobile truck, to organise outreach activities in public spaces at schools and in various communities with artists, thereby promoting visual art and culture.