New sculpture park set to transform Hong Kong harbour-front

Hong Kong has just welcomed its first sculpture park, with 19 international artists unveiling installations on the city’s harbour-front.

The Harbour Arts Sculpture Park features work by a range of international artists including Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley and Yayoi Kusama. Local Hong Kong artists including Morgan Wong and Kacey Wong are also exhibiting.

The park is made up of a series of playful artworks that are dotted around Central’s Tamar Park, Edinburgh Place and outside the Hong Kong Arts Centre. The installations include a yellow spotted pumpkin by Japanese artist Kusama, which overlooks Victoria Harbour; a series of white benches by American artist Jenny Holzer; and a life-sized white horse by British artist Mark Wallinger. Accompanying this ‘museum without walls’ will be a programme of free workshops, guided tours and a public art symposium.

The sculpture park is part of an ongoing effort to cement Hong Kong’s reputation as a major international arts city. The project overlaps with the city’s well-established ‘art month’ in March, when big-ticket fairs Art Basel Hong Kong and Art Central arrive in the city.

‘This project is part of a longstanding vision to bring more art to Hong Kong and to create opportunities for artists working in the city and beyond,’ says Harbour Arts Sculpture Park co-curator Tim Marlow, artistic director at London’s Royal Academy of Arts.

Fumio Nanjo, co-curator and director of Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, says that ‘a public art project of this quality and scale shall pave the way for more exhibitions of a similar nature in Hong Kong’, and ‘will encourage more artists around the world to take part in projects here’. The park runs until 11 April and is free to the public.

For more information, visit harbourarts.hk.

Words: Cathy Adams