M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) in Hong Kong, is pleased to announce Danh Vo In Situ: Akari by Noguchi, the opening display of a new long-term project developed by artist Danh Vo (Danish, born Vietnam 1975) in Found Space, the dramatic concrete atrium at the heart of M+ on Basement 2. Opening to the public free of charge on Saturday, 26 October 2024, the project will transform the experience and usage of Found Space by reimagining it as a welcoming social zone and a stage for different programmes and activations.

Danh Vo In Situ will unfold over several years. It will feature a changing display of artworks and design objects by Vo and other artists and makers in Found Space, incorporated into a bespoke adaptable structure conceived by Vo in organic and sustainable ways. The project will also include performances, events, discussions, screenings, and exhibitions organised by Vo and the M+ Curatorial team. This initiative is developed in close collaboration with Vo, who will work with various teams in M+ to reimagine the museum’s potential as well as its exhibition and public programming practices. The modular structure developed by Danh Vo will function as a display system, regularly incorporating works by himself and by other artists with whom he has affinities and connections.

For Danh Vo In Situ: Akari by Noguchi, the inaugural phase of the long-term project, Vo has developed a display featuring a selection of Akari light sculptures by artist Isamu Noguchi (American, 1904–1988). Akari, meaning ‘light’ or ‘illumination’ in Japanese, is the name Noguchi gave to a group of more than a hundred sculptural lighting designs he created between 1951 and 1986. Inspired by traditional lanterns from Japan’s Gifu prefecture made from mulberry bark paper and bamboo, Akari are both affordable sculptures and functional lamps for homes, exemplifying Noguchi’s multifaceted practice in sculpture, design, and architecture. They resonate with Vo’s ongoing interest in how objects carry multiple stories and meanings. Complementing the display of Akari light sculptures with a selection of tropical plants, Vo turns Found Space into an intimate environment where visitors can slow down and spend time.

Danh Vo In Situ: Akari by Noguchi is curated by Doryun Chong, Artistic Director and Chief Curator, M+, and Russell Storer, Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs, M+.

Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, highlighting the significance of the project to the museum, says, ‘The launch of Danh Vo In Situ marks an exciting new chapter for M+. This innovative project exemplifies our commitment to pushing the boundaries of how we engage with contemporary visual culture and introduce groundbreaking practices to visitors. By inviting Danh Vo to reimagine Found Space, one of our key architectural spaces, we aim to enrich the way our visitors interact with M+ to foster dialogue between artists, spaces, and audiences.’

Doryun Chong, Artistic Director and Chief Curator, M+, elaborating on the features of this project, says, ‘Danh Vo is an artist who takes on major ideas, histories, and spaces by interweaving symbolic objects with intimate personal narratives. His ability to make meaningful connections across cultures, places, and times makes him an ideal collaborator for this long-term project. The evolving display will introduce new artists and makers and their works, creating a new matrix of meaning within M+. By transforming Found Space into a venue for new encounters, the project creates a platform for diverse and experimental activities over time, offering audiences refreshing ways to engage with visual culture and M+.’

About Danh Vo

Danh Vo (Danish, born Vietnam, 1975) likes to use found objects and contexts to consider the play of intimacy and power across time. His installations have a spatial and aesthetic ease and often make collaborators of artists, friends, and family. Vo sees desire as key to how cultures persuade, resist, and adapt. In his work, beauty is a key to the making and unmaking of identity.

About Isamu Noguchi

Isamu Noguchi (American, 1904–1988) was a pioneering sculptor, designer, and landscape architect. He incorporated diverse cultural influences into his works, such as Chinese calligraphy, Japanese ceramics, and Italian marble forms. He created many innovative public projects, including gardens, fountains, and playgrounds (like Playscape on the M+ North Roof Garden), based on principles of accessibility and discovery.

About Found Space at M+

Found Space, M+’s site for major installations, is a striking venue on Basement 2, defined by the alignment of underground rail tunnels running beneath the M+ building. It has presented various landmark installations including We the People (2011–2016) by Danh Vo, Round Table–Side by Side (1997) by Chinese French artist Chen Zhen, and Death of Nerves (2022) by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Korean artist Haegue Yang’s Sonic Rescue Ropes (2021–2022), reaching through the vertical lightwell to connect the basement levels with the ground floor, is a special commission for the space.

About M+

M+ is a museum dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK), it is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world, with a bold ambition to establish ourselves as one of the world’s leading cultural institutions. M+ is a new kind of museum that reflects our unique time and place, a museum that builds on Hong Kong’s historic balance of the local and the international to define a distinctive and innovative voice for Asia’s twenty-first century.

About the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK)

WestK is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on forty hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, WestK produces and hosts world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, providing twenty-three hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.