No room for 'vulgar' art at M+ museum opening

The M+ Museum cannot be run like a grocery store, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority chairman Henry Tang Ying-yen says as he defends the decision not to exhibit a "vulgar" artwork by Ai Weiwei at the opening.

That came weeks after pro-Beijing legislator Eunice Yung Hoi-yan questioned if the M+ collection including a work by dissident Ai would be in violation of the national security law.

The photograph Study of Perspective: Tian'anmen shows a person giving the finger in front of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It is among 1,510 items in the M+ Sigg Collection of Chinese contemporary art donated by Uli Sigg, a former Swiss ambassador to Beijing.

Taking legislators on a tour of the museum building yesterday, Tang said M+ had no intention to exhibit Ai's photograph during its opening at year-end, claiming the decision was made before the controversy started.

"Some people accuse us of backing down when retracting that vulgar photograph," he said. "But we never planned to make it one of the exhibits during the opening."

He went on: "Curating is not like running a grocery store where everything you have [is] on display. We have more than 8,000 works in our collection."

On whether the picture would be displayed later, Tang said that is a curating decision. But the authority would comply with the law and uphold professionalism while protecting diversity and freedom of artistic expression.

Tang also said he is in no position to judge whether a work breaches the law. The collection is accessible online, Tang added, and the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR can reach the authority if it considers any piece to be in breach of the law.

He also defended the outlay of HK$170 million to buy 47 art pieces from Sigg in 2012 despite him donating another 1,463 pieces worth HK1.3 billion to M+.

The 47 pieces are valuable and their worth should have gone up considerably since the purchase nine years ago. Sigg had wanted to send the works back to China, and Shanghai proposed building a museum to exhibit the works, Tang said. But Sigg chose Hong Kong.

M+ is to focus on art, design and architecture plus moving images of the 20th and 21st centuries. The building will have 17,000 square meters of exhibition space across 33 galleries. It also has three cinemas, office space, restaurants and a rooftop garden.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who appoints authority board members and its chairman, had said she had "100 percent confidence" in Tang.

She said if cultural work clashes with the security law it has to be "dealt with seriously."

amy.nip@singtaonewscorp.com