M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) are pleased to co-present Trevor Yeung: Courtyard of Detachments. The exhibition is an adaptation of Yeung’s solo show representing Hong Kong in a Collateral Event at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The exhibition marked the sixth collaboration between M+ and HKADC at one of the world’s most prestigious platforms for international contemporary art. The adapted exhibition in Hong Kong will open to the public from Saturday, 14 June to Sunday, 12 October 2025 in the Cissy Pui-Lai Pao and Shinichiro Watari Galleries at M+.

As with previous Hong Kong presentations at the Biennale, the 2024 Venice exhibition returns to Hong Kong in an adapted form. Trevor Yeung: Courtyard of Attachments, Hong Kong in Venice (20 April – 24 November 2024) saw Yeung explore sentimentality, desire, and power dynamics through the concept of attachment. For the return presentation, titled Trevor Yeung: Courtyard of Detachments, Yeung’s installations continue to examine the relationships between human and aquatic ecosystems, but now through the concept of detachment.

Raised and living in Hong Kong, Yeung draws inspiration from his surroundings, including pet shops, his father’s seafood restaurant, public fountains, feng shui arrangements, and his childhood pet fish. In the exhibition, he carefully constructs landscapes of fishless aquariums as metaphors for the social systems that govern our lives. With water removed from the once-operational tanks, his works evoke a poignant sense of longing, desire, and containment, prompting reflection on absence and attachment.

The first part of the exhibition takes the form of an abandoned pet fish shop. In Cave of Avoidance (Not Really), racks of empty fish tanks, marked by dried algae and water stains, set a sombre tone. Mirrored walls reflect visitors into the installation, casting them as participants in this scene—perhaps as a fish, a customer, or a fish seller. Behind the racks, Little Comfy Tornado (After Typhoon) features a complex filtration system that creates the highly regulated environment fish need to survive. However, this delicate, artificial ecosystem is broken, a warning of the consequences of neglect. Other works in this room use specific materials to embody resistance and defiance. From salts that accumulated on the exhibition walls in Venice (Salty Lover (Hong Kong)) to clusters of fungi (Night Mushrooms), these byproducts of humid climates are often considered harmful. Yet they also suggest survival against the odds, inviting visitors to imagine alternative modes of existence.

The second part of the exhibition resembles a Venetian courtyard, a space for visitors to rest and contemplate, populated with uncanny monuments and intriguing details. The centrepiece, Pond of Never Enough (Under Construction), is a fountain boarded up with wooden panels. Although it was functional in Venice, the fountain is now defunct and stands suspended in time. Gate of Instant Love resembles a hanging display in a pet fish shop, subverting the excitement of bringing home a new pet fish. In this room, Yeung also introduces the motif of the wilting lotus with photographs (Pondering Ponds) and four sculptures (Mx. Tried-My-Best). The lotus can thrive even in the most difficult conditions and is a metaphor for cycles of decay and rebirth.

Bernard Chan, Chairman of the M+ Board, says, ‘We are immensely grateful for our collaboration with HKADC to participate in the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia for the past twelve years, with a shared mission to nurture Hong Kong eminent artists via M+’s curatorial insights and a common vision to promote Hong Kong as the centre for East-meets-West international cultural exchange. For more than a decade, with M+’s professional team and extensive network in the local and international arts community, the Hong Kong Collateral Event at the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia has become a significant stage for promoting homegrown artists abroad through staging solo exhibitions.’

Kenneth Fok, Chairman of Hong Kong Arts Development Council, says, ‘Since 2001, HKADC has proudly presented Hong Kong artists at Hong Kong’s Collateral Event at the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. More than two decades later, we are thrilled to witness the remarkable success of Trevor Yeung’s exhibition in Venice. Bringing these presentations back home serves as a vital bridge, connecting our community to the accomplishments of our talented artists on the international stage. HKADC expresses our heartfelt gratitude to M+ for its contributions over the past decade. We believe that M+ will continue to exert its influence across various art platforms in the future. Looking ahead, HKADC remains steadfast in its commitment to advancing Hong Kong arts and culture while championing the exceptional creativity of our artists with audiences worldwide.’

Doryun Chong, Artistic Director and Chief Curator, M+, says, ‘We are truly grateful to all the participating artists, curators, and project teams of the past six Hong Kong presentations at the Venice Biennale. They represent the best of contemporary art and curatorship from Hong Kong, brought to a global audience. We are particularly proud of the critical international acclaim and extensive global media attention that these exhibitions, curated and organised by M+, have received. They have also led to further professional growth—for the artists, who often went on to exhibit at major international institutions, and for the Hong Kong’s arts community, by providing dozens of emerging and aspiring professionals with invaluable work opportunities. The audience has significantly increased with each edition, and Trevor Yeung’s exhibition in 2024 attracted more than 200,000 visitors, the highest number for the Hong Kong Collateral Event to date. M+ will continue to nourish the growth of Hong Kong’s art scene in new and inspiring ways and shape a lasting legacy of the city’s many cultural contributions.’

Olivia Chow, curator of the exhibition, says, ‘It has been a continued joy and privilege to work with Trevor Yeung on this timely and quietly powerful exhibition for M+. In Courtyard of Detachments, fish tanks become haunting symbols of absence, evoking what is left behind when systems collapse or care is withdrawn. Yet within these emptied vessels, traces of life remain—a reminder that even in detachment, we continue to long for connection.’

Trevor Yeung says, ‘Bringing this work back to Hong Kong offers a special opportunity to recontextualise my Venice presentation for a local audience. I hope visitors will find moments of recognition in these melancholic spaces and resonate with what remains after loss. I am deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed to and supported this project from its inception to its homecoming.’

Ticketing arrangements

Visitors with General Admission tickets can access Trevor Yeung: Courtyard of Detachments starting Saturday, 14 June 2025 alongside M+ Sigg Collection: Another Story, Things, Spaces, Interactions, Shanshui: Echoes and Signals, and Making It Matters at L2. The General Admission ticket is HKD 120 for adults and HKD 60 for visitors eligible for concessions*.

Tickets to the Special Exhibitions The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Picasso for Asia—A Conversation include access to all General Admission galleries. Package tickets for both Special Exhibitions are HKD 240 for adults and HKD 120 for visitors eligible for concessions*. Visitors can enjoy both Special Exhibitions on the same day along with access to all General Admission exhibitions. Tickets are available for online purchase via the M+ website, WestK website, WestK App, Cityline, China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited, Klook, KKday, and Trip.com. For more information on M+ ticket arrangements, please visit the M+ website.

*Concession tickets are available for full-time students, children aged 7 to 11, senior citizens aged 60 or above, persons with disabilities and one companion, and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients.

M+ Membership

M+’s annual membership and patron membership offer an exclusive experience of contemporary visual culture for people of all ages and backgrounds. M+ Members and Patrons can enjoy unlimited access to General Admission exhibitions year-round, including Trevor Yeung: Courtyard of Detachments. Meanwhile, M+ Patrons can enjoy unlimited free admission to all exhibitions with up to three guests per visit. Other membership benefits include three free admission vouchers to Special Exhibitions throughout the membership year, exclusive access to the M+ Lounge, M+ Private Viewing, priority ticket purchase, exclusive events, and more. For more information, please visit the M+ website.

About Trevor Yeung

Trevor Yeung (born 1988, Dongguan) was raised, lives, and works in Hong Kong. His practice excavates the logic of closed systems and the ways in which they create and contain emotions and behaviour. Fascinated by ecology, horticulture, and aquatic ecosystems, Yeung presents carefully staged objects, photographs, animals, and plants in his mixed-media works to address human relationships and the artificiality of nature.

Yeung has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including the Biennale of Sydney (2024); the Singapore Biennale (2022); the Kathmandu Triennale (2022); La Biennale de Lyon (2019); EVA International, Dublin (2018); the Dhaka Art Summit (2018); and the Shanghai Biennale (2015). His work has been exhibited at institutions include Aranya Art Center, Beidaihe (2024); Gasworks, London (2023); Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (2022); Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2022); Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2022); PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv (2021); M+, Hong Kong (2021); Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2021); Para Site, Hong Kong (2020); and Stiftung Skulpturenpark Köln (2020).

Yeung’s work is held in the collections of Centre Pompidou, Paris; Stiftung Skulpturenpark Köln; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris and San Francisco; FRAC Alsace; and M+, Hong Kong.

About Olivia Chow

Olivia Chow is a curator and artist living in Hong Kong. She recently curated Trevor Yeung: Courtyard of Attachments, Hong Kong in Venice—Hong Kong’s Collateral Event at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Previously, Chow served as Assistant Curator, Visual Art, at M+, and collaborated with artists to create exhibitions, publications, and public programmes, including Nalini Malani: In Search of Vanished Blood (2012/2022), Nalini Malani: Vision in Motion (2021), Shirley Tse: Stakes and Holders (2020), and Shirley Tse: Stakeholders, Hong Kong in Venice (2019), Hong Kong’s Collateral Event at the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

At M+, Chow also contributed to the museum’s visual art collection by managing the inaugural M+ International Council for Visual Art and leading acquisitions from around Asia and beyond. Prior to joining M+, she held curatorial positions at Para Site in Hong Kong (2015–2017) and at The Works Art and Design Festival in Edmonton, Canada (2010–2014). She will start her appointment as Director of Curatorial Programs at the Chinese Canadian Museum, Canada in July 2025.

About M+

M+ is Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture. Located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK), it is 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. The landmark M+ building on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbourfront was designed by the world-renowned architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron in partnership with TFP Farrells and Arup. It spans a total floor area of 65,000 square metres, featuring thirty-three galleries alongside a Learning Hub, Moving Image Centre, Research Centre, and Roof Garden, among other event and programming spaces. The M+ Facade is one of the largest LED screens in the world, showcasing commissioned artworks on the Hong Kong skyline every evening. The museum stewards a multidisciplinary permanent collection that includes objects from regions across Asia and beyond. A highlight is the M+ Sigg Collection, one of the world’s most extensive collections of Chinese contemporary art. Today, M+ is a nexus for researching and presenting contemporary visual culture, inspiring thought and curiosity.

About the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK)

WestK is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural hubs in the world and Hong Kong’s new cultural tourism landmark, spanning forty hectares alongside Victoria Harbour. WestK comprises a mix of landmark arts and cultural facilities, including world-class museums M+ and the Hong Kong Palace Museum, intricately designed performing arts venues the Xiqu Centre and Freespace, the eleven-hectare Art Park with a waterfront promenade, and the upcoming WestK Performing Arts Centre.

Hosting over 1,000 exhibitions, performances, programmes, and events each year, WestK provides a vital platform for both emerging and established artists. WestK welcomes more than ten million visitors each year, evolving as the international cultural brand of Hong Kong and strengthening the city’s strategic role as an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.

About the Hong Kong Arts Development Council

Established in 1995, the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) is a statutory body set up by the Government to support the broad development of the arts in Hong Kong. Its major roles include grant allocation, policy and planning, advocacy, promotion and development, and special projects. The mission of HKADC is to support and promote the development of 10 major art forms in literary arts, performing arts, visual arts as well as film and media arts in Hong Kong. Aiming to foster a thriving arts environment and enhancing the quality of life of the public, HKADC is also committed to facilitating community-wide participation in the arts and arts education, encouraging arts criticism, raising the standard of arts administration, and contributing on policy research.