HONG KONG.- M+, the new museum of visual culture in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, is presenting Five Artists: Sites Encountered, an exhibition featuring an international selection of female artists working across various mediums. On view from 7 June to 20 October 2019, this ninth exhibition at the M+ Pavilion displays important works by May Fung (Hong Kong, born 1952), Lee Bul (Korean, born 1964), Ana Mendieta (American, born Cuba 1948–1985), and Charlotte Posenenske (German, 1930–1985), as well as a specially commissioned project by Lara Almarcegui (Spanish, born 1972), bringing together a diverse group of artists to explore different understandings of site — from intangible to tangible and imagined to real.
This cross-cultural and cross-generational exhibition features works spanning from the 1960s to the present, including sculptures, installations, and moving images. The multifaceted works emerge from dialogues with place and environment across different historical moments and perspectives, prompting viewers to explore their own place and sense of belonging in the world.
Curated by Pauline J. Yao, Lead Curator, Visual Art, M+, Five Artists: Sites Encountered can be seen as a loose dialogue with the M+ Pavilion and the soon-to-be completed M+ building. Taking this important stage of evolution as a departure point, the exhibition carries special resonance with the transformations occurring at the museum’s site. Specifically, Lara Almarcegui offers in the commissioned work a scientific expression of the construction currently underway.
The exhibition also includes moving image works by Ana Mendieta and May Fung, who are, respectively, pioneers of performance and video art. Several films from Mendieta’s influential Silueta series are on view, ranging from one of her earliest, Silueta del Laberinto (1974), set in an ancient burial site in Yagul, Mexico, to one of her last, produced in her native Cuba a few years before her death. These poignant works document the artist’s performative actions in which she impressed her body into dirt, sand, and mud and transformed these materials with water, smoke, and fire. Also addressing site through the display of bodily encounters, Fung’s She Said Why Me (1989) features images of a blindfolded woman wandering in the streets of Hong Kong. Her process of rediscovery is intertwined with black-and-white archival footage of women of different ages and backgrounds similarly navigating the city.
Sculptures by German Minimalist artist Charlotte Posenenske are also included in the exhibition. Resembling ventilation shafts, her Vierkantrohre series can be arranged in multiple configurations. The industrially produced parts made from galvanised steel and heavy-grade cardboard can take different shapes for each exhibition, responding to the architectural space and the wishes of the exhibition organiser. Other sculptural works are a group of over thirty maquettes created by Lee Bul, one of the leading Korean visual artists of her generation. These models of real and fictional buildings respond to ideas of architectural utopias, as does her hanging sculpture, intricately crafted from steel, metal sheets, and mirrors.
Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director of M+, describes the exhibition as a significant step forward in articulating the museum’s vision: ‘We are extremely proud to assemble a diverse group of internationally acclaimed artists from Asia, Europe, and North America in this single exhibition, which attests to our commitment to building a global museum of visual culture. As we continue to grow and expand through this important stage of transformation, this exhibition presents an essential opportunity to build M+’s collections of works of contemporary female artists.’
Pauline J. Yao, Lead Curator, Visual Art, M+, underscores the importance of showcasing artistic diversity: ‘With this group of artists, hailing from various points on the globe, we establish M+ as not only a museum unconfined by boundaries or geographies, but also one committed to presenting singular artistic voices. All of us are shaped in some way by our surroundings, but the dialogues with site and place that emerge from visual artists remain wholly unique. They are motivated by desires to make meaning from their place in the world and role within society. A commitment to present these artistic perspectives—as wide and diverse as they may be—is central to the mission of M+.’
