Interview with Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director of M+: Laying foundation solid for Hong Kong to develop into East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange in China
M+ has drawn a lot of attention ever since the beginning of this project. The National 14th Five-Year Plan mentioned developing Hong Kong into the "East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange", and there have been high expectations on M+. What plans does M+ have? As Hong Kong has become the second largest art trading centre in the world, how does M+ seize the advantages of the city? On the very controversy over its collection, what is M+'s view? We had our written interview with Ms Suhanya Raffel, the Museum Director of M+.
Interview by Mali Zhou
Asia's first global visual culture museum
Reporter: First of all, would you please give us a brief introduction to M+?
Suhanya: I would describe M+ as a global museum of visual culture like no other in Asia. We have more than 8,000 works in our collections. They are twentieth and twenty-first century visual culture works across mediums ranging from painting, sculpture and digital media , as well as across region, from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mainland China, Asia and beyond. Among them, around 1,500 works are on display in six ongoing public exhibitions at M+. As the Museum Director, I must recommend you to view each and every piece.
I would also like to emphasise that M+ is far more than a museum. It is a cultural institution, through which Hong Kong can be built into a cultural capital. So far 1.5 million people have benefited from our learning programmes, digital engagement and scholarly symposia .
Reporter: Why does M+ choose the period of 20th and 21st century? And why is it a "visual culture" collection, and what's the difference between it and a regular art collection?
Suhanya: The birth of M+ can be traced back to fifteen years ago. In 2006, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government established the Consultative Committee on the Core Arts and Cultural Facilities of the West Kowloon Cultural District and three advisory groups, inviting the city's arts and culture leaders to brainstorm and discuss about the future development of the West Kowloon Cultural District (the District). One of the advisory groups was Museums Advisory Group (MAG) responsible for examining how to set up a museum which can complement the development of the District. The MAG members came up with the bold concept of "M+" (or "Museum Plus") and hoped that it will become more than a conventional museum.
In the area of contemporary art and culture, the top museums in the world include MoMA in New York and Tate Modern in London, while M+ is Asia's first global visual culture museum with an ambition to establish itself as one of the world's leading cultural institutions.
Visual culture is everything we see and much more. It spans across disciplines from ancient objects to contemporary artworks, and from urban landscapes to our living spaces and everyday objects around us, ranging from paintings, sculptures, ink art, installations, moving image, and digital media. The works for display include architectural drawings and models, graphic design, manufactured objects, album covers, posters, video games, and more.
Hong Kong visual culture is unique geographically and thematically, and includes aspects of popular culture, vernacular material culture, print culture, and media culture. In particular, ink art, an important part of Hong Kong visual culture, is also one of the cornerstones of the discipline of visual art, whose perimeter is broadly international and transregional in line with the museum's global vision.
The twentieth and early twenty-first century have seen rapid advancement in digital space, technology, and how the development of architecture and design has largely affected the visual environment. These changes are reflected in our real life and constitute a rich visual culture. As a new visual culture museum, we hope to be a pioneer in contemporary visual culture on the basis of East-meets-West characteristics in Hong Kong and inject this energy into our exhibitions. The visual culture displayed by M+ represents the development of visual culture from the 1950s to the present and provides interpretations from different perspectives. Many works of our precious collections are rarely displayed in cultural institutions in other parts of the world.
Other world-class museums such as MoMA in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris build their respective collections in a certain environment at a particular time. The ambition of M+ does not merely lie in building a collection that reflects its time and place. It is our ultimate goal to build a collection that looks at the world from a Hong Kong perspective, in which global developments in visual culture will be filtered through the lens of what is relevant to Hong Kong's current place in the world. The museum attracted more than 370,000 visitors from the museum opening in November to 31 December 2021. We hope that M+ will be a forward-looking, flexible and socially responsive cultural institution encompassing ideas, displays, dialogue, education and entertainment.
Reporter: The National 14th Five-Year Plan mentioned developing Hong Kong into the "East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange", and there have been high expectations on M+. In this regard, what ideas or plans does M+ have?
Suhanya: We are very pleased about this. The opening of M+ last year and Hong Kong Palace Museum this year gives the District a unique advantage in becoming a world-class integrated arts and cultural district and an important hub for promoting international cultural exchanges in the Greater Bay Area and beyond. The District will try its best to proactively contribute to this mission.
We strongly believe that M+ will be an important cultural institution to promote cultural exchanges among Mainland China, Asia and beyond, laying a solid foundation for Hong Kong to develop into an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchanges in China. M+ will expand in areas that other institutions have not explored. For example, since 2013, we have worked with the Hong Kong Arts Development Council to support local artists to participate in the Collateral Events of the Venice Biennale for multiple editions, which have established the image of Hong Kong Kong as an international arts and culture capital and provided Hong Kong artists and designers with opportunities to participate in world-class exhibitions.
M+ is a combination of Chinese and Western cultures, both in terms of collections and the working team of the museum. The M+ Collections have approximately 8,000 works, of which 23% are from Hong Kong artists. M+ attaches great importance to the visual culture and arts with Chinese elements. For example, on the most prominent concrete column in the Main Hall, famous calligrapher Tong Yang-Tze's monumental works of calligraphy are displayed. M+ attaches great importance to exchanges with national cultural institutions. For example, we have been collaborating closely with the Power Station of Art, Shanghai. The M+ team comes from diverse backgrounds. In addition to those from Hong Kong and overseas, quite a number of the team are from Mainland China, such as Dr Pi Li, Sigg Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs, who served as deputy executive director of the art administration department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. These prove that M+ can play a very active role in develo ping Hong Kong into an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange in China as laid down in the National 14th Five-Year Plan.
Bring Hong Kong's cultural scene to international
Reporter: In 2020, Hong Kong has become the second largest art trading centre in the world after New York. Meanwhile, Hong Kong is home to the prestigious Art Basel. Do you think this shows that Hong Kong has a natural advantage in international culture and art development?
Suhanya: The emergence of Hong Kong as one of the world's biggest art trading centres, alongside New York and London, is built on strong cultural and commercial foundations. As a cultural hub where East and West meet, Hong Kong not only has the characteristics of Chinese culture, but also is a highly international city, with strong cultural inclusiveness and acceptance. It has the potential to develop into the world's leading art exchange and auction centre.
Hong Kong has traditionally been a centre for the trading of Chinese fine art and antiques. Its unique history and geo-strategic location made it the nexus of Western art and Chinese buyers. The artworks in auction range from ancient to contemporary times, and from Chinese landscape paintings and jade to Western oil paintings and jewelry. The arrival of international auction houses, top art fairs such as Art Basel and top-tier international galleries has not only strengthened Hong Kong's position as an art trading hub in Asia and boosted Hong Kong's global status but has also made a strong impact on the local arts and cultural scene.
We have been working closely with Art Basel and other arts organisations in Hong Kong over the years. In past editions of Art Basel Hong Kong, M+ had booths in the public area of the fair, where visitors could learn more about the M+ Collections, the M+ building, and the M+ programmes. In its 2022 edition, we are in discussion with Art Basel Hong Kong to co-commission a new moving image artwork on the M+ Facade. The important part of the M+ mission is to connect Hong Kong visual culture with global visual culture, bringing Hong Kong's cultural scene to international. M+ will transform the cultural landscape in Hong Kong, by displaying a superb unique collection of visual culture while ensuring that we are international in our outlook and perspective.
The museum of twenty-first century is no longer conventional art gallery which displays works
Reporter: You have extensive curatorial experience in museums across Australia. In your opinion, in addition to the advantages you just mentioned, what challenges do Hong Kong face in developing such a large-scale museum?
Suhanya: Born in Sri Lanka, I migrated with my family to Australia when I was 14. I studied art history at the University of Sydney. Then, I moved to London and began my career at the Tate. In the 1990s, I returned to Australia and started to build the contemporary Asia Pacific collection at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. From then on, I travelled constantly to Mainland China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, India, and, of course, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to build collections. I therefore have a deep understanding in Asian history, culture and art, and also have very deep personal connections with them.
From 2002 to 2012, I led Brisbane's Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, the first Triennial bringing Asian art to Australia since 1990s. I had worked with Chinese contemporary artists such as Zhang Xiaogang and Cai Guoqiang, who was the chief visual art designer of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, to present their works in exhibitions before I started working at M+ in Hong Kong in 2016.
In terms of content, it is not very difficult to build Asia's first global contemporary visual culture museum in Hong Kong and tell stories from Hong Kong and Asian perspectives. Asia has rich cultural heritage covering film, art, design, architecture histories, which are profound and unique. But in Asia, museum culture is less sophisticated than the West.
We often say that the museum of the twenty-first century is no longer a conventional art gallery which displays works, but a comprehensive, integrated cultural institution which aims to inspire, delight, educate and guide people to explore diversity and nurture creativity. This is why we often emphasizee the meaning of "+" in M+, hoping to improve the cultural quality of society, cultivate public life through cultural infrastructure, nourish ideas, and encourage innovation.
Therefore, the challenge we face is to build museum culture, which is a higher-level, bigger goal. Achieving this goal and developing M+ into a world-class museum requires an international vision and unswerving commitment, which cannot be accomplished overnight. I expect M+ to be not just a building carrying a new concept, but an important cultural institution that promotes cultural exchanges among Mainland China, Asia cultural and beyond. I also hope that this museum will contribute to the development of Hong Kong, nurture art appreciation along the general public, cultivate local creative soft power in the coming decades, establish a unique operation model of this world-class museum, and operate as a cultural landmark which makes Hong Kong people proud so that it can live up to the support of the National 14th Five-Year Plan for Hong Kong to develop into an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.
Reporter: M+ has drawn lots of attention. Some commented that Sigg Collection is "one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Chinese contemporary art in the world" while some commented that M+ Sigg Collection is biased and does not conform to the image of a significant museum. There are even critics that cast great doubt on the artistic value of the collection. What is your view?
Suhanya: M+ is a world-class contemporary visual culture museum. Like its international peers, its collection policies and practices and its curatorial approach are based on research and academic rigour. As with all institutions in Hong Kong, M+ will continue to comply with the relevant laws and regulations while also maintaining the highest level of professional and artistic integrity.
We have more than 8,000 works in the M+ Collections, including 1,510 works in the M+ Sigg Collection. Dr Uli Sigg worked and engaged in business in China as early as 1979. He was the Swiss ambassador to China in the 1990s and has always been keen to collect contemporary Chinese art. The M+ Sigg Collection assembles works from 320 artists, including famous artists such as Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjin, Cai Guo-Qiang, Cao Fei and more. M+ Sigg Collection is the largest and most comprehensive collections of contemporary Chinese art in the world and is an important foundation for M+'s Chinese contemporary art collection as it chronicles the development of Chinese art over four decades from 1972 to 2012.
However, it is notable that M+'s contemporary Chinese art collection is not only limited to the M+ Sigg Collection. M+ will continue to collect and acquire works with creative and aesthetic excellence, and historical and documentary significance in accordance with our Acquisition Policy to enrich the collection .
We understand that it is natural for people to have different opinions, interpretations, views or even criticism on artworks. As a world-class museum, we listen to all comments or criticisms on M+ with a humble and open attitude. When the public sees the artworks from an artistic point of view and adopt an open and inclusive attitude to appreciate the works, a positive environment for cultural creation can be created, enhancing Hong Kong's development of an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange supported by the Central People's Government.
Reporter: Which work in the collection impresses you the most?
Suhanya: I think that the works in the M+ Collections are excellent. I have to recommend every work to you all. If I have to choose one highlight, it would be British artist Anthony Gormley's Asia Field. This is a single monumental work which is a sea of clay figurines made by residents from Guangdong in China. It reflects China's vast territory and large population. There are some 200,000 clay figurines in this work. In 2003, the artist invited around 300 people from Xiangshan village in Guangzhou city to make them. 80,000 of them are now displayed in M+. This installation belongs to Field, a series that Gormley began in 1989. By far the biggest and most ambitious work in the series, Asian Field was exhibited in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chongqing and Beijing. M+ is happy to be the final home of this work. This demonstrates that M+ is already playing the role in the cultural exchange between China and other countries.
(The article was published in the April 2022 issue of Bauhinia Magazine)
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