ArtisTree, 2014/01/10-02/09, www.westkowloon.hk
An exhibition that was part of the image-building activities of the West Kowloon Culture District’s (WKCD) future Museum. This time, the main aim was to present the outcomes of the architectural competition for the M+ building, and a selection of the future museum’s collection of architecture-related artefacts. The exhibition took place at ArtistTree near Taikoo.
The presentation of 6 shortlisted architectural proposals and the winner was informative, but it did not answer any of the questions that I had about WKCD even before entering the show. It was a very polished and uncontroversial presentation, where everything was presented as a ‘fact’. Given how important this project is pitched for ‘Hong Kong’ (which should refer to Hong Kong people and not just Hong Kong tycoons, hopefully), there was very little information on the decision-making process. From other sources I heard that there were some public hearings and consultations, but in the end the process and resulting presentation seemed more like a deal behind closed doors between the architects and the developers. The impression was that of a real-estate company selling condominiums – and until today, nothing was able to disperse my doubts that this is indeed what the whole WKCD project is about.
The second (larger) part of the exhibition space was showcasing a selection of the new and growing ‘architecture collection’. What this meant in reality was a hotchpotch of architectural drawings, models, photographs and digital artworks that somehow has to do something with architecture and the urban environment. More than an ‘exhibition’ it seemed like a ‘warehouse’ to me. The space was stuffed with too much exhibits, without any clear storyline or logic. One could of course take pleasure in the individual objects – like a Norman Wright drawing or an Andreas Gursky photograph or Cao Fei’s RMB City in Second life – but unfortunately, these works did not come together to a greater whole, but instead interfered with each other and competed for attention.
The curators of M+ should understand that the greatest luxury of Hong Kong is free space, and there is no point in making an exhibition that is more reminiscent of the average citizen’s crammed flat or a market street than that of an art museum. Back to the first part of the exhibition, I would need a clarification on the aim of presenting the competition results without presenting the competition process. The whole show brought up more questions than answers. What was this really about?