HONG KONG.- M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) in Hong Kong, is presenting Dream Rooms: Environments by Women Artists 1950s–Now. This special exhibition presents twelve environments by trailblazing women artists from Asia, Europe, and North and South America from the 1950s to the present, including three newly commissioned installations by Asian women artists. These immersive, multisensory works invite visitors to enter and interact with the space, underscoring that art is experienced and understood through both the mind and the body.

The exhibition was first presented at Haus der Kunst München in 2023 with the title Inside Other Spaces. Environments by Women Artists 1956–1976. The presentation at M+, the first edition of this travelling exhibition in Asia, is curated by Andrea Lissoni, Artistic Director, Haus der Kunst München, and Marina Pugliese, Director, Museum of Cultures, Intercultural Projects and Public Art, City of Milan, in collaboration with Russell Storer, Senior Curator and Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, M+.

Environments first appeared as an art form in the mid-1950s and 1960s, later coming to be known as installation art. Often ephemeral and experimental in nature and using unconventional materials and technologies, they combined aspects of art, architecture, and design, paving the way for the digital immersive experiences of today. While many of these works were made by women, histories of art have tended to focus on male artists. Dream Rooms: Environments by Women Artists 1950s–Now addresses this imbalance by foregrounding the visionary contributions of women artists.

Audiences will play an active role in the exhibition, engaging with and being stimulated by the sensations, materials, sounds, and objects as they become part of the works. The exhibition explores forms and ideas that speak to their time, while also encouraging visitors to explore, laugh, wonder, or embrace feelings of unease.

The nine historical installations in the exhibition have been carefully reconstructed through extensive research and collaboration with artists, artist estates, conservators, and scholars. These are:

• Vento di Sud-Est (Wind Speed 40 Knots) (1968, reconstruction Haus der Kunst München, 2023) by Laura Grisi (Italian, 1939–2017) – a powerful gust of air in a dark room brings atmospheric phenomena into the gallery, inviting visitors to reflect on our connection with nature and its relationship to our increasingly urbanised lives. The work is complemented by a film in which Grisi documents winds in different parts of the world.

• Spectral Passage (1975, reconstruction Haus der Kunst München, 2023) by Aleksandra Kasuba (Lithuanian American, born Lithuania, 1923–2019) – a monumental work that invites visitors to walk through a series of interconnected nylon structures, each illuminated by neon lights corresponding to the colours of the rainbow. Each space is paired with a different movement from English composer Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets, Op. 32 (1914–1917). The work represents a journey through a rainbow as we traverse the life cycle from birth to death and rebirth.

• Penetración / Expulsión (del Fluvio Subtunal) (1970, reconstruction Haus der Kunst München, 2023) by Lea Lublin (Argentine French, born Poland, 1929–1999) – a transparent tunnel filled with clear PVC balls that represents processes of ovulation and pregnancy, inviting viewers to symbolically re-enter the womb. The inflated structure is connected to an external compressor by a tube that resembles an umbilical cord. Phalus Mobilis, its male counterpart, is a cluster of suspended, inflatable tubes that move as audiences walk through them.

• A casa é o corpo: penetração, ovulação, germinação, expulsão (1968, reconstruction Haus der Kunst München, 2023) by Lygia Clark (Brazilian, 1920–1988) – a multi-sensory journey through darkened chambers that relive the tactile and visual experience of human reproduction. The work has several dark compartments, resulting in moments that are at turns constricting, destabilising, contemplative, and exhilarating.

• Feather Room (1966, replica Haus der Kunst München, 2023) by Judy Chicago (American, born 1939) – an all-white, edgeless, otherworldly space filled with 300 pounds of cruelty-free feathers that physically envelops visitors, making them active participants in the work. With its curved walls and soft, diffused light, the space creates a sense of isolation and infinity while challenging the male-dominated tradition of sculpture comprising hard materials and durable forms.

• Ambiente cronotopico vivibile (1967, reconstruction Haus der Kunst München, 2023) by Nanda Vigo (Italian, 1936–2020) – a mirrored box backlit by neon light in different colours creates a magical effect, suggesting a portal to another world. With its controllable external switch that changes the colours of the lights, the work marked a step forward in the development of interactive art.

• We used to know (1970, replica Haus der Kunst München, 2023) by Tania Mouraud (French, born 1942) – a heat- and sound-based installation that provokes psychological unease, such as anxiety, fear, or a sense of threat. This deliberately repellent experience is in part a metaphor for the art world’s rejection of women at the time it was made.

• ¡Revuélquese y viva! (1964, replica Haus der Kunst München, 2023) by Marta Minujín (Argentine, born 1943) – a soft sculpture made of psychedelic interwoven ‘mattresses’ accompanied by the familiar music of the Beatles for audiences to enter and explore. Minujín’s intimate, inhabitable space evokes a sense of wonder and vitality, showing how the most ordinary things can be made extraordinary.

• Red (shape of mosquito net) (1956, reconstruction National Museum of Art, Osaka, 1985) by Yamazaki Tsuruko (Japanese, 1925–2019) – a suspended, glowing red cube draws audience inside, their shifting shadows visible behind a luminous screen. The structure echoes the cubic shape of mosquito nets hung over bedroom futons in Japan. The work was first shown outdoors in 1956 and revolutionised the way art was experienced at the time.

The three new commissions by M+ include The House Is Crumbling (2017/2025) by Pinaree Sanpitak (Thai, born 1961), an experiential, ever-changing environment composed of thousands of Thai khid pillows. Visitors are invited to interact with the work by deconstructing and reconstructing the space, revealing how even the smallest actions can transform our surroundings. In the Focus Gallery, Infinite Memory (2025) by Chiharu Shiota (Japanese German, born Japan, 1972) features the artist’s signature red threads cascading through the space, enveloping three towering red dresses that evoke the female body and its indelible memories and experiences. To Breathe (2025) by Kimsooja (South Korean, born 1957) is presented across the museum, wrapping the windows and skylights with a translucent diffraction film that reflects natural light throughout the day, transforming the museum’s architecture into a shifting, iridescent landscape.