M+ hosts an opening ceremony for its new Special Exhibition, Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China

M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District, hosted an opening ceremony tonight for its new Special Exhibition, Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China, ahead of the exhibition’s public opening on Saturday, 29 July 2023.

M+ tonight invited guests to inaugurate the first-ever museum exhibition in the world dedicated to Song Huai-Kuei—widely known during her lifetime as Madame Song. The ceremony was officiated by Raistlin Lau, Acting Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Bernard Chan, Chairman of the M+ Board, Betty Fung, Chief Executive Officer, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, Doryun Chong, Deputy Director, Curatorial, and Chief Curator, M+, Dr Pi Li, curator of Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China and former Sigg Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs, M+, Boryana Varbanov, Song Huai-Kuei’s daughter, and Phénix Varbanov, Song Huai-Kuei’s son.

As the highlight of the ceremony, M+ collaborated with fashion brand Shanghai Tang to present a fashion stunt at the 2F Atrium of the museum, inviting guests to reminisce on Madame Song’s lifelong dedication to promote China’s culture to the world. Synonymous with the idea of ‘East meets West’ and ‘Created by Chinese’, Shanghai Tang paired up their garments with Madame Song’s multiple identities—artist, entrepreneur, fashionista, and cultural ambassador. Shanghai Tang’s founder the late Sir David Tang was Madame Song’s good friend, making the fashion stunt even more meaningful.

Raistlin Lau, Acting Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, says, ‘At the time when we mark the 45th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up this year, the Madame Song Exhibition timely offers a lens to the audience to appreciate the diversification and internationalisation of Chinese visual culture covering art, film, music and fashion after the country’s reform and opening up. Hong Kong has been given a mission in the national 14th Five-Year Plan to develop into an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange. The Madame Song Exhibition is one of the first few projects launched with the support of the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund, with which we aspire to develop Hong Kong into an arts and cultural metropolis and provide opportunities for the arts and cultural sector to thrive.’

Bernard Chan, Chairman of the M+ Board says, ‘Madame Song is a figure everyone who is interested in the roots of Chinese contemporary visual culture needs to know. She is the one who shaped the landscape of art, fashion, and popular culture in China from the 1980s to the 2000s, facilitated the revival of traditional Chinese aesthetics, and defined an influential vision for Chinese culture on the world stage. Her life and legacy embody M+’s mission to promote cultural exchange and realise the strategic positioning of Hong Kong as an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.’

Song Huai-Kuei’s extraordinary story offers a lens through which the audience can appreciate the significant transformation of China’s visual culture after the country’s reform and opening-up to the world. Centred around the life and times of Song Huai-Kuei, the exhibition will feature more than 320 objects to narrate Song’s fascinating biography and her underestimated influence on transforming China during the period of reform and opening-up in the 1980s into a cosmopolitan and culturally diverse society today.

Together with her husband, Bulgarian fibre artist Maryn Varbanov, Song fostered a rich community of avant-garde artists and, in her role as Pierre Cardin’s chief representative in China, cultivated an international network of filmmakers, actors and actresses, musicians and fashion designers. In her circle were award-winning filmmakers/directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Chen Kaige, Jiang Wen, Tsui Hark, Yonfan and Zhang Yimou; acclaimed actors Chen Chong, Gong Li, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Liu Xiaoqing; fashion designer John Galliano and Eddie Lau Pui-kei and musician Cui Jian, to name but a few. Song’s extensive social network and impact on China’s contemporary cultural development made her one of the most important figures in China’s elite cultural circle in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Special Exhibition Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China is financially supported by the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The exhibition’s Airline Partner is Cathay Pacific while its Hotel Partner is Rosewood Hong Kong.

Tickets to the exhibition are available for online purchase via the M+ website, West Kowloon Cultural District website, West Kowloon Cultural District App, Cityline, China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited, Fliggy, Klook, KKday and Trip.com. M+ Members and Patrons enjoy exclusive benefits and discounts.

Remarks

About M+
M+ is a museum dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, it is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world, with a bold ambition to establish ourselves as one of the world’s leading cultural institutions. M+ is a new kind of museum that reflects our unique time and place, a museum that builds on Hong Kong’s historic balance of the local and the international to define a distinctive and innovative voice for Asia’s twenty-first century.

About the West Kowloon Cultural District
The West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on forty hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, providing twenty-three hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.

About Mega Arts and Cultural Events (ACE) Fund
Mega ACE Fund targets mega arts and cultural events in Hong Kong organised by the private sector or non-governmental organisations, with a view to developing Hong Kong into an arts and cultural metropolis, providing opportunities for the arts and cultural sector to flourish, as well as fostering Hong Kong’s development as an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.

The content of this programme does not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to this programme only, but does not otherwise take part in it. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the materials/activities (or by members of the GRANTEE’s team) are those of the organisers of this programme only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.