Earlier in March, M+ was part of Art Basel Hong Kong 2018. Art Basel, if you’re not familiar with it, is an international art fair staged annually in Hong Kong; Basel, Switzerland; and Miami Beach, the United States. This year, like other art institutions and publishers, M+ had a booth in the public area of the fair, where visitors could learn more about the M+ Collections, the M+ building, and the M+ programmes.

However, we didn’t want to limit our booth to those who visited Art Basel over the three days it was open—so in this post, we’re providing an online summary of what the booth looked like, how it was designed, and what information was inside!

The M+ Art Basel booth was designed by Hong Kong-based architectural firm Spatial Practice and developed in collaboration with Ikko Yokoyama, Curator, Design & Architecture at M+, and Kingsley Jayasekera, Director, Marketing & Customer Experience at West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.

The booth was divided into three distinct sections: ‘What We Collect’ (focusing on the M+ Collections), ‘What We Are Building’ (focusing on the M+ building), and ‘What We Do’ (focusing on M+ programming). These three elements were present from the start of the design process, and led to the central concept of the triangle core radiating outwards.

The outer walls of the booth developed over the design process from simple white walls to something inspired by the idea of concrete moulds: plywood shells used to shape concrete and other materials. This was also inspired by the idea that the museum is still being shaped, formed, and created. The temporary nature of the Art Basel event was also taken advantage of to heighten the materials—rather than being painted white, the walls were made out of whitewashed plywood (painted with a thin layer of white paint and sanded), creating a soft and raw surface that still looked refined.

Another important element of the booth was the contrast between the walls and the strong, colourful graphic design elements, created by the London-based North Design. On the outside, colourful and catchy ‘slogans’ were created to catch visitors’ eyes as they moved through the busy Art Basel floors.

The busy nature of Art Basel also led to the final priority of the booth: creating an open, accessible space that provided visitors with a more relaxed, slowed-down tempo. Lots of seating space and open walls and ceilings were incorporated to create a space where people could hang out, gather, and sit.

It is difficult to visualise our growing M+ Collections—currently over 4,800 works/objects and more than 12,000 archival items—even with our efforts to display them in front of large audiences through exhibitions at the M+ Pavilion, screenings, and loans to museums around the world. This section took a different, more playful approach, and outlined a few choice stats about the M+ Collections—including how many countries are represented, how many chairs there are, and how many objects in the collections feature an image of a dog. Have a closer look below:

The videos in this section showed a compilation of artist interview videos that you can find on the Channel section of M+ Stories.

The What We Are Building section contained information about the M+ building and its construction process. The main feature was a video about the building that you can see here on M+ Stories.

Statistics were also shared about the building:

The final section, ‘What We Do’, contained information about the ongoing M+ programmes, such as the upcoming In Search of Southeast Asia Through the M+ Collections exhibition (22 June–30 September), the upcoming inaugural edition of the M+ Live Art series (1–3 June), and information about the M+ Pioneers membership programme.

Colourful orange M+ tote bags were also provided in this section, later spotted throughout the Art Basel floors, all over town, and even internationally!