"Louis Vuitton : A passion for Creation" is the new contemporary art exhibition and first large-scale showing of this type of art to be launched in Hong Kong, in what locals have nicknamed "the bathroom building" : Hong Kong Museum of Art.
Just when the publicly founded building of the West Kowloon cultural district is being debated, this world-class event is there to build up the marketed profile of the city as "Asia's World city".
Before, the museum had only exposed antiquities when displaying western collections like the very successful "Treasures of the World's Cultures from the British Museum" in 2007.
The museum's chief curator Tang Hoi-chiu has been very enthusiastic about the "world citizenry feel" of the exhibition : "It is a good way to stimulate creative dialogue. We see it as a very good opportunity to show masterpieces of contemporary art to educate the public and broaden people's horizons".
Heavy rainstorms didn't prevent attendances levels to sky-rocket, with a 130 percent increase over regular weekends' attendances for the oppening of this much-awaited show. Indeed, around 3,100 people made it on the day!
Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton gave many pieces from his "Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la création" to make the core of the exhibition.
Suzanne Pagé, the foundation's artistic director said the "Passion" pieces were chosen to illustrate the city's positive energy as a world city. 5.9 million Hong Kong dollars were used to mount the show which opened in May 22. The idea behind the show came from the French Consulate back in 2008.
French artsists Bertrand Lavier and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Chinese representants Cao Fei, Yang Fudong, Paul Chan, plus big names such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andreas Gursky and Jeff Koons are all featured alongside seven commisioned works by Hong Kong artists Tsang Kin-wah, Naddim Abbas and Adrian Wong to name but a few.
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