M+, Hong Kong’s museum of visual culture located in West Kowloon, will no longer oversee the city’s exhibition at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Instead, the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMOA) will lead preparations for the presentation.
The decision to replace M+ after a thirteen-year tenure with the HKMOA was made by the government-appointed Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
In another change to proceedings, the exhibition will feature the work of several artists rather than a single artist, as has previously been the case since 2009. These artists will be chosen from a 200-strong list, which includes those who have received commissions from government-run museums, alongside artists nominated by the council and other tertiary institutions. Maria Mok Kar-wing, the museum’s director, stated that Chinese traditional culture was not a prerequisite for pavilion proposals.
The decision of HKMOA to solicit nominations and invite proposals from artists marks a shift away from the approach of M+, which had faced criticism for a ‘black box operation’ in which they were solely responsible for choosing artists to show in Venice.
It has not yet been announced how many artists will be selected for the exhibition, whose theme is ‘Very Hong Kong’.
