DEPARTURE LOUNGE
NEWS, BRIEFINGS, LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
A BIG PLUS FOR HONG KONG The Madame Song exhibition at the M+ museum (above); the museum exterior day and night (below).
O
ne of the hottest tickets in Hong Kong right now is M+, a museum dedicated to visual arts. Since opening in November 2021, M+ has attracted more than 4.5 million visitors. It is already rivalling the city’s major tourist attractions such as Victoria Peak, the Star Ferry and the Tian Tan Buddha. There are 33 galleries at M+, with a mix of permanent and rotating exhibits showcasing works from Hong Kong and mainland China, as well as Asia and the rest of the world. M+ is in the West Kowloon Cultural District, which is already endowed with cultural icons such as the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the Xiqu Centre, where Chinese opera is performed. The expansive 65,000 square metre M+ building is as impressive as the creative works inside. The M+ exterior (65 metres high and 115 metres wide) is embedded with thousands of LED bulbs and is one of the biggest media walls in the world. At night, the facade transforms into an evolving digital platform,
16 Paradise – Air Niugini’s in-flight magazine
Among the rotating exhibitions at M+ is a tribute to Madame Song, a legend in Chinese art, film, music and fashion. The exhibition runs until April 14 and chronicles her life from the 1950s. An intriguing ongoing exhibition is ‘Things, Spaces, Interactions’. It presents more than 500 examples of design objects that have had an influence in Asia and the rest of the world in the past 70 years, including the Toshiba automatic rice cooker, which first went on sale in 1955. M+ is open Tuesdays to Thursdays and weekends 10am to 6pm, Fridays 10am to 10pm, closed Mondays; adult standard general admission ticket is HKG$120 (about PGK58), mplus.org.hk/en. n visual media screening across its surface. M+ has lofty ceilings, which provide open, airy spaces to view the contemporary artworks. Tall windows in the galleries frame some spectacular vistas of Victoria Harbour.
– JENNIFER JOHNSTON Air Niugini flies from Port Moresby to Hong Kong three times a week. See airniugini.com.pg.
