The M+ Rover 2020–21 edition is designed for primary school students and teachers as well as the general public. In this edition, M+ invited artist Wong Tin Yan to develop a set of artist-led activities and a series of online educational resources—in response to the health-protection measures for schools—based on his newly commissioned work, Yes but Why?.

Wong graduated from the Department of Fine Arts of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2000. His work is held in the collection at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and in public and private collections in Hong Kong and overseas. He has participated in various exhibitions, public art projects, and educational programmes, including Charming Tastes and Fragrance: Literature and Visual Arts (House of Hong Kong Literature, 2019), Harbour Arts Sculpture Park (Hong Kong Art Centre, 2018), the Arts Ambassadors-in-School Scheme (Hong Kong Arts Development Council, 2016), The Very Fun Park Contemporary Art Exhibition (Fubonart, Taipei, 2015), and Kwai Tsing Amusement Park and Xinhua Animal Hunt: Sculptures by Wong Tin Yan (Art Promotion Office, 2006). He was recognised at the 40 Under 40 Awards by Perspective magazine in 2010 and received an Entry Prize for commercial interior design at the GDC Awards in 2011.

M+ Rover is a major school and community outreach programme first organised by M+ in 2016. M+ Rover 2018 was on the road from February to June 2018. Schools received an original M+ resource pack with activities that promoted the creative spirit of M+ Rover. In 2018, M+ collaborated with artist Ng Ka Chun.

Thing Beyond Things, a work by Ng Ka Chun, showed how ordinary, everyday objects can be transformed through imagination to reveal the relationship between objects and daily life. Ng believes imagination is the best 'tool', and his works are simple yet powerful manifestations of the ways in which he responds to and transforms things. Perhaps this is 'the usefulness of uselessness' posited by Zhuangzi, which transcends the functional dimension of objects to create new values and meanings that lie beyond conventional standards.

Ng uses limited resources and tools to stimulate creativity, and employs games to encourage students to break away from their preconceptions of tools. Students placed the concept of 'thinking with your hands' into practice, to feel the attributes of objects through tactile experience in order to discover the objects' substance and the ways they can be remodelled. M+ Rover 2018 showcased the fruits of their creative collaboration on campus and in the community. Thing beyond Things is like a reference work that contains the wisdom and experiences of its many contributors. It reminds us to draw on what has come before to open up new possibilities, and to respond to or transform the limitations of things with creativity.

Ng Ka Chun graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts of Hong Kong Baptist University. His works are mainly in sculptural and installation formats, presenting the recycling and remoulding of manufactured goods as a response to the essence of space and object. Ng has participated in school projects such as the Artist-in-residence Programme (HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, 2015) and Social Furniture: Public Waste Recycling Project (la Space, 2011) with the aim of bringing students into social settings, in order to explore the formats and possibilities of public goods from the perspective of blending craft with product design.

Ng's move back to Pat Heung, Yuen Long in 2013 inspired him to create more works that explore the rural­ urban development. In the same year, he co-founded the art group MUDwork with local artist Chung Wai Ian. He has participated in a number of local community and art education projects with the method of object creation. These projects include Play Depot (Play Depot 2017), W Playground (Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, 2017) and A Pot of Spring on the Stairs (Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2017).

Learn more about Ng Ka Chun: https://ngkachun.com

Since 2016, M+ Rover: Travelling Creative Studio has been the first major school outreach programme organised by M+. It acted as a pop-up creative studio that toured to secondary schools and community spaces during the academic year, from February to June 2017. Schools received an original M+ teaching pack, which expanded upon the creative spirit of M+ Rover.

M+ Rover 2017 featured an exhibition that evolved as it traveled from school to school; students contributed to the ever-changing and evolving show. The exhibition was opened to all students on the activity day; participating students also visited community spaces with M+ Rover and initiated a dialogue with the public. In 2017, we collaborated with local illustrator and comic writer Rainbow Leung.

Rainbow Leung studied design studies and cinematic arts, graduating from the School of Design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong. Her book Sha Ha Wo Che Village (2009) includes anecdotes from life in the village where she grew up and shows her fondness for nature and people. Her illustrations and stories about the characters she meets around Hong Kong are regularly published in Ming Pao; they were collected and published as Hong Kong Citizen Dictionary (2012). Rather than starting with a draft, she sketches free-form and is known for honestly capturing her subject's essence in an unequivocal manner.

M+ Rover: Travelling Creative Studio was the first major school outreach programme organised by M+. The tailor-made trailer toured to schools and communities in Hong Kong during the academic year from March to July 2016.

We invited artist Kacey Wong to contribute to the design of the M+ Rover. The cool metal exterior mimics that of a spaceship, while its warm interior comprised recycled wood taken from discarded pallets. Wong wanted audiences to experience immersion in a cosy nest that resembled the belly of a whale. Wong's investigation into the spatial relationship between humans and the environment inspired the design of M+ Rover that combines mobility and sustainability, reflecting on humanity's unbalanced relationship with natural resources in service of rapid urban development.

M+ commissioned two artists—creative practitioners from art, design, architecture, moving image, and other fields of visual culture—to envision a participatory work that includes artist-led school workshops. In 2016, we collaborated with photographer Siu Wai Hang and artist Tang Kwok Hin.

Siu prompted participants to reflect on unobserved changes within our daily lives by asking them to select the most important 'future artefacts', tangible or intangible, that they predicted will disappear in Hong Kong. After a process of discussion and deliberation, the final selected items will be documented and displayed through videos of developing Polaroids, still negative images and written prediction of their cause of disappearance. Reversing color and time in the process, Siu manipulated the images to draw on the irreversibilty of disappearance and the visual representation of loss. Siu explored essential qualities of photography such as temporality, visibility and subjectivity in this work, and drew our attention to things that are disappearing gradually and quietly in our lives.

Photographer Siu Wai Hang holds a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Media from School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. He earned his Master of Fine Arts from Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He won the 2013/14 and 2015/16 WYNG Masters Award. His solo exhibitions include The Elusive, Lumenvisum (2015) and Metropolis Chlorophyll, K11 (2010). He has exhibited in a number of group shows, including two WYNG Masters Award Exhibitions - Identity, Hong Kong Central Library (2016), GASP!, Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2014); Pingyao International Photography Festival 2013; Hong Kong Contemporary Art Awards 2012, Hong Kong Museum of Art (2013). His work is in the collections of The Legislative Council of Hong Kong, The Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong, and private collectors. He lives and works in Hong Kong and teaches at various art institutes and universities.

By examining slang emerged from modern communication tools􀁁and social media, Tang reflected on how language frames our perspectives and habits. The work displayed collaborative efforts resulting from the artist-led workshops in schools, which included creative audio, visual, and text responses, as well as daily objects and other materials that accumulate through the run of the project.

Tang Kwok Hin is a mixed media artist, independent curator, and writer. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2008 and Bachelor of Arts (major in Fine Arts) in 2006. His art focuses on space, time, and symbols; he explores hidden rules of life and existence in his work. He participated in the 15th WRO Media Art Biennale (2013); Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Awards (2009); and the Discoveries section of the first Art Basel in Hong Kong with a solo presentation. His work has been exhibited at Ice Palace, United States; Osthaus Museum Hagen, Germany; Singapore Art Museum; Venice Arsenate, Italy; Hong Kong Museum of Art; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan. He received first prize at the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial (2009); won the Hong Kong Arts Development Award for Young Artist (2010); and received an Asian Cultural Council grant (2013). His work is in the collections of Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, and in private collections around the world.

Wong curated many art exhibitions exploring issues of space and city: Home (1999), Personal Skyscraper (2000), City Space (2001) and Drift City (2001, 2002 and 2010), etc. Since 2000, he started his Ori􀀈City photo series, in which he dressed up as a skyscraper, travelling between cities in search of a utopia, and published the album Drift City 10 Years (2010). His tricycle house project Wandering Homes was selected to represent Hong Kong at the Venice Architectural Biennale 2008. He received the Artist of the Year Award (2010), the Rising Artist Award and Award for Arts Education (2003) from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

M+ Rover takes students into uncharted creative territory. Designed by artist Kacey Wong, the customised trailer is ready to take you on a journey to explore new possibilities.

M+ commissions local cultural practitioners to participate in each edition of the programme. For the 2020–21 edition, artist Wong Tin Yan has created a series of interactive activities and guided tours, placing particular emphasis on participatory art. This edition is designed specifically to encourage primary school students and teachers to unleash their imaginations, explore the everyday in a new light, and discover fresh perspectives by learning together.

In previous editions, M+ collaborated with artists Tang Kwok Hin and Ng Ka Chun, photographer Siu Wai Hang, and illustrator and comic writer Rainbow Leung. The cultural practitioners engaged the public with a series of creative learning activities through role-plays, photography, and drawing sessions, and the innovative use of everyday objects.

‘Why do we need to question?’ Artist Wong Tin Yan believes that questioning is an important tool for learning. Yes but Why? is his effort to create an environment that motivates students to stay curious and think unconventionally.

M+ Rover tours to primary schools across Hong Kong, offering students an alternative space on campus to acquire knowledge and express their thoughts. In the 2020–21 edition, Wong asks students, teachers, and visitors to write down questions and post them onto the walls in the exhibition space. Documenting these intuitive ideas and responses, Wong transforms M+ Rover into a site of inquiry.

To broaden the students’ creative horizons, Wong has invited collaborators from various fields, including soundpocket, Orient Occident Atelier, and Deep Food to join this adventure of questioning. Drawing inspiration from the work of these collaborators and students, Wong poses a series of questions that help students liberate themselves from habitual ways of thinking. These interactions engage artists, collaborators, teachers, and students in creative dialogue that provokes fresh and curiosity-driven thinking. In this ongoing learning process, everyone comes to view the world through a different lens, continuing the journey of questioning with renewed perspectives.

Teachers can download a teacher’s resource pack and a set of online learning materials that accompany the programme. Designed to help teachers develop their lesson plans, the toolkit provides information on extended themes, suggested activities, and discussion topics about Wong Tin Yan’s work Yes but Why?. In addition, we have worked with Wong to develop a series of video learning resources in which he shares his creative ideas with visitors before they visit M+ Rover.