NEWS

Try Reading “MAMC MEMBERS’ EXPRESS”! The Director’s Art World Souvenirs

2025.6.4 [Wed]

MAMC is a membership program offering members opportunities to engage with and enjoy contemporary art at the Mori Art Museum.
Through our email newsletter “MAMC MEMBERS’ EXPRESS,” available exclusively to members, we regularly share columns designed to help you explore contemporary art in greater depth.
One of these columns is “Director’s Art World Souvenirs,” in which Mori Art Museum Director Kataoka Mami shares the history and current events surrounding contemporary art and art museums that she has encountered during her travels around the world.
We are pleased to present her stories from Hong Kong, specially this time. We hope you enjoy it!

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“Director’s Art World Souvenirs” from Hong Kong

Today’s art world is not only dominated by exhibitions held at art museums, but also by international art festivals such as biennales and triennales, as well as art fairs at which commercial galleries from all over the country gather to sell their works. International art festivals last from several months to half a year, while art fairs last for a few days, so art professionals note them on their calendars and seek to travel when it is most feasible to visit a variety of events in the same trip. Following this trend, the concept of the art week, a specific period during which all art events are coordinated to occur in a set period in a given city, has become widespread in recent years. For example, Singapore has its art week in January, Seoul in September, and Taipei in October, and they focus on attracting both domestic and international audiences by aligning the period when art fairs and biennales occur.

Art Basel Hong Kong, held in Hong Kong in March, is one of the largest art fairs in Asia. Although Hong Kong does not call it an art week, many art events are held in conjunction with this major fair, and each museum also holds major exhibitions at this time. Art Basel originally began in Basel, Switzerland in 1970. It later expanded to Miami Beach in 2002 and Hong Kong in 2013, becoming a major global brand in the art fair world. The newly launched Art Basel Paris, established in 2022, has also been attracting much attention. This year’s Art Basel Hong Kong was held from March 28 to 30. However, museum staff, collectors, and other stakeholders arrived early, as a special preview called “First Choice” started at noon on March 26. From breakfast meetings with museum professionals from around the world, to visits to galleries and art spaces across Hong Kong during the day, and dinners and parties at night, the schedule was packed. Because of this, many jokingly call it “Crazy Week” instead of “Art Week”!

I arrived in Hong Kong on March 21 to attend a joint selection meeting for a video work commission organized by the Han Nefkens Foundation, M+, National Gallery Singapore, and the Mori Art Museum. On the 23rd, I was joined by four members from the Mori Art Museum, and on the 24th, Chairperson Mori Kyoko and curator Tokuyama Hirokazu also joined us. Together, the seven of us, we visited M+—one of the largest art museums in Asia, which opened in Hong Kong in 2022—as well as CHAT, Tai Kwun, and other highlights of the Hong Kong art scene, particularly around Art Basel.

In addition to more than 240 gallery booths, Art Basel Hong Kong features the “Encounter” section, which showcases large-scale works by 18 artists. This year, Lu Yang, who is exhibiting at Mori Art Museum’s MACHINE LOVE exhibition, presented his latest work, DOKU the Creator (2025). The number of images created by generative AI has continued to increase, and the quality is overwhelming. I truly can't wait to see what happens next. I also happily discovered many other works that were very impressive. It is through this kind of exploration, works for future exhibitions and Roppongi Art Night are selected.

Text: Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)

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How did you enjoy the story from Hong Kong? The MAMC MEMBERS’ EXPRESS will continue to feature a variety of columns, including the director’s souvenir stories, reports from curators on their travels, and highlights of exhibitions.
For more information about the Mori Art Museum Membership Program (MAMC), please visit the link below.