M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) in Hong Kong, will present Jade Jadeite (2024), a film by artist Zhou Tao (Chinese, born 1976). Commissioned by M+, Jade Jadeite will be displayed on the M+ Facade every night from Thursday, 7 November 2024 to Sunday, 26 January 2025.

Jade Jadeite’s playfully alliterative title is a poetic metaphor for Hong Kong, portraying it as a shining gem. The film unfolds as a sequence of river landscapes, from the west of the Pearl River region in mainland China to Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, ending at the M+ Facade. While the work seems to depict one continuous journey, it actually combines scenes from different times and places to connect the communities of the Pearl River and Hong Kong. Zhou intersplices these vignettes with abstract interstitials of reflected sunlight. These transitions hide cuts between locations, creating a serene and dreamlike vision of the region. This vibrant portrait of waterways transcends the boundaries of time and space, inviting us to reconsider the limits of our visual experience shaped by the digital screens all around us.

Known for his unique approach that blends documentary and poetic visual languages, Zhou is a prominent figure in the realm of experimental film. Zhou’s videos are mostly plotless and strikingly colourful, highlighting a sense of surrealism within the everyday. His practice is characterised by a deep engagement with living environments, depicting the subtle and unexpected interactions between people and landscapes.

Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, says, ‘M+ is thrilled to present Zhou Tao: Jade Jadeite, a poetic portrait of the river landscapes that connect the Pearl River region and Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, guiding viewers to our museum while revealing the deeper connections between the communities intertwined with these vital waterways. Jade Jadeite is a striking commission work for the M+ Facade, reflecting the broader context of our times and the interconnectedness of our regions.’

Ariadne Long, Assistant Curator, Visual Art, M+, and Savannah Shiu, Assistant Curator, Moving Image, M+, say, ‘Zhou is renowned for translating his shrewd observations of places and communities into poetic films. The seemingly continuous take in Jade Jadeite and the camera movement evoke the experience of viewing an ink landscape scroll, blending realism with a lyrical understanding of our world. By exploring the camera’s limitations, which viewers can occasionally see in the film, Zhou’s otherworldly video challenges us to rethink the beauty found within its dysfunction.’

Zhou Tao says, ‘I’m excited to present Jade Jadeite on the M+ Facade, a unique canvas for moving image at the southernmost edge of Kowloon gazing out over Victoria Harbour. Guangzhou is the foundation of my work, and this film is inspired by these waterways. I wanted to link together Hong Kong with the Pearl River Delta. Jade Jadeite captures the rhythms of everyday life in the Pearl River region and Hong Kong. As the camera flows like the water it depicts, the work unveils the landscapes and the fluid connections between people and their environments. It invites viewers to contemplate the deeper ties woven into our collective memories and experiences.’

To inaugurate Jade Jadeite, M+ Cinema will present a special screening of Zhou Tao: Documenting Dreamscapes on Saturday, 2 November 2024. This screening will feature two films by Zhou: The Worldly Cave (2017) and The Periphery of the Base (2024), both of which feature his documentary approach of capturing surreal landscapes. The special screening will be followed by a talk by Zhou, moderated by Ariadne Long.

About Zhou Tao

Zhou Tao (Chinese, born 1976) is a filmmaker and moving image artist based in Guangzhou. After graduating from the Oil Painting Department at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art in 2001, he acquired his master’s degree in mixed-media studies in 2006. Zhou’s films have been presented at numerous film festivals, including the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and the 72nd Locarno Film Festival. He received the Short Film Award at the 46th Cinéma du Réel in 2024 for The Periphery of the Base (2024). His works have been shown at M+, Hong Kong; Guangdong Times Museum; the 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia; Sharjah Biennial 13; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane.

About the M+ Facade Commissions

The M+ Facade is an expansive, light-powered canvas featuring thousands of LEDs on the south face of the M+ building, making it one of the largest media screens in the world. Overlooking Victoria Harbour, the facade showcases a dynamic mix of works from the M+ Collections, moving image commissions, and the museum’s identity, offering moments of play, humour, poetry, intellectual reflection, and artistic contemplation to thousands of onlookers each evening. Throughout the year, M+ collaborates with leading artists from all over the world, commissioning works for the facade that champion new moving image practices and deepen the museum’s connection with a global audience. These commissions speak to M+’s role as a pioneering global museum of contemporary visual culture engaged with technology and digital media while contributing to the thriving arts scene in Hong Kong.

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.