Mobile M+ inflation exhibition landscape design

An Introduction – This project is an attempt to create a very minimal museum with only a network of concrete lines. These lines may also be viewed from the above as an extremely large drawing which may be an exhibit itself. Hence, the project is also an experiment: how would people be walking on a drawing?

The Event – The “Mobile M+: INFLATION!” exhibition was held at the West Kowloon Cultural District between April to June 2013. INFLATION! is the first exhibition held at the Park and the future site of M+ at the West Kowloon Cultural District, with six large-scale inflatable structures by international artists around the world. These sets of monumental temporary sculptures are highly visible, they signal the development of M+ and the West Kowloon. They are, at the same time, playing with audience’s anticipation of outdoor sculpture in the district, stimulating a broader interest and ideas in the integration of contemporary visual art in public space, through re-thinking the role of spaces and objects in reinforcing place-meaning and place-making.

The Design – The landscape is expressed by a set of interweaving flow of lines, creating a spatial framework with distinct character for the outdoor exhibition. This sinuous network response to the existing site forces, art works, and human movements; thus creating an interesting and playful experience for the visitors, visually and physically. Our intervention remained deliberately minimal, so that the landscape would be supporting the art pieces, instead of competing with them. The clean and sculptural form of the design creates a stark contrast with the character of the site, and provides a different reading for the visitors when experienced from ground level in comparison to high up in the air. Exploring on the contrast between temporariness and permanency, the design will remain exposed to the ground post inflation exhibition as a poetic gesture to record the event, areas that used to house art works and other facilities will be slowly overtaken by vegetation on site.