Opening of M+ museum in cultural district delayed until 2019
Visual culture museum at West Kowloon Cultural District now likely to open in 2019, two years behind original schedule, after design wrangles
The West Kowloon Cultural District's visual culture museum, M+, faces more setbacks after the opening date for the venue was pushed back once again and a key member of the curatorial team resigned.
The building that will house the museum is now scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2018, with a public opening of the venue set for late 2019, some two years later than originally scheduled.
But despite the delays, museum head Lars Nittve says that at the end of it all, Hong Kong will have a cultural institution to rival the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, which houses the largest modern-art gallery in Europe.
"It's taking longer than originally planned. Taking everything we know into account, this is a realistic timetable," said Nittve, the museum's executive director, in Venice. A team from M+ is presenting a solo exhibition by Hong Kong artist Tsang Kin-wah at the city's Biennale.
The museum, one of the first facilities at the long-awaited culture hub, will house 60,000 square metres of floor space and is expected to cost HK$5 billion by completion. After a delay in funding due to filibustering by lawmakers, and wrangling over the final design, the new timetable had been set by construction managers, Nittve said.
A 21-member curatorial team is researching and building a collection for the museum consisting of visual art, architecture, design and moving images, while also working on exhibition programmes. The museum has staged pre-opening exhibitions at venues around Hong Kong. A Mobile M+ exhibition was expected to take place in the fourth quarter of this year, said Doryun Chong, M+'s chief curator.