Video: Media Question and Answer Session
23 June 2010
Q1) One thing that the local art community really concern is that it is great to have somebody of great renown to come to Hong Kong. But at the same time, people would really concern about your understanding of local culture and the local art scene, so how would you work on that?
Mr Nittve: All projects of this scale are team efforts, and I will definitely see to that I, around me, have good collaborators who are much closely linked to the Hong Kong art scene. I would provide the knowledge and the expertise I have, and I will listen carefully to what my colleagues who know the scene much better. It’s going to be a team effort, of course.
Q2) What are the key elements that would be featured in M+, and what is the budget for the M+ project?
Mr Nittve: Some questions, you know…I signed the contract about three hours ago. So to some detailed questions, I can’t answer them fully. But of course, one of the interesting aspects of the M+ is the fact that the museum is going to try to move beyond the traditional idea of an art museum and include other aspects of visual culture like design, architecture, popular culture, moving images and ink art. It is actually very timely and fit very well with how the discussion of art direction is going presently, where you know, more inclusive perspective is now much more in place. I think it’s able to create something that accommodates the present, the future in the way that other museums haven’t. As for the budget, I think I have to leave to someone else for now. I think it’s an overall budget for the entire project. But how would it split, I think it’s not determined yet.
Mr Sheffield: Yes, we are working in the overall budget.
Q3) There are many comments that the M+ cannot be profitable, and cannot make profit. How can you increase the audience and make more local people understand what contemporary art is.
Mr Nittve: There are very few art museums or museums in the world that are profitable in themselves. I think there’s a model for the entire West Kowloon Cultural District that the budget would be balanced. That’s the way we are looking at it now, and I believe it would work. I think that M+ would definitely be a museum that would create and attract a lot of audience. Partly because Hong Kong is a big city, we also have a fantastic inflow of visitors to Hong Kong. During the build-up period, we will see to the building of audience and educating the audience. It’s a museum for people living and working in Hong Kong, but of course, it would be a global attraction as well. Having no worries over the visitor number doesn’t mean that the museum would be profitable. I can just compare with Tate Modern. Two years before when I took up the post, two years before the opening of Tate Modern, no one thought that any people would come. We estimated that may be 2 million would come, and five and a half million people came. I think that we tend to underestimate the audience. I think it’s gonna to be a success. Together, I think, it’s something that together, also with you as a part of the media, we build the audience altogether.
Q4) How do you compare developing M+ with developing Tate Modern?
Mr Nittve: I think, if I look at complications and possibilities, I think the complications with… someone told me yesterday when I just flew in, that it’s gonna be more complicated than the Tate Modern. I would rather say that there are many advantages in developing M+, because actually we start from scratch, more or less, we build something from scratch. In Tate Modern, we have to plug-in into a one hundred-year-old institution with its traditions, with its already existing staff, and that made it quite complicated to create a museum, that soon turned out that would be the biggest one in the family. So I think that it’s probably different, but on the same complication level, but in different ways.
Mr Sheffield: Can I add something? I think the other interesting feature of this is, as what Lars has said, that we start from scratch, this is a joint team operation with the performing arts and education and everything else built in. So from the very beginning, we are able to think about the interplay between the art forms. But also, the possible interplay between performing arts and visual arts, this is a fantastic opportunity and I’m sure all of you know many artists today, whether in performing arts, visual arts or cinematic arts, working in lots of different media simultaneously. So this gives the unique opportunity for collaboration both local and international. It makes it so exciting, also attracting a huge amount of interest on the international scene. Since I accepted this post in March, I have so many messages of people saying it’s fantastic, this is what is needed. It’s not only from the people of Hong Kong, but also people across the world. Don’t underestimate the amount of interest, the amount of anticipation, the amount of support, you will receive from overall into delivering this project.
Mr Nittve: Absolutely true, on the point that Graham mentioned relating to the question of the interplay between visual art, visual culture and performance, we had a lovely discussion over lunch actually. We see the opportunities for collaboration, and possibly also having performative spaces within the museum building and possibly vice versa as well. So I think there’s possibility in the whole project to nurture this dialogue between different arts, it sounds really exciting.
Q5) M+ is a brand new idea, is there any new method to run the museum?
Mr Nittve: I think yes. Every museum is different to start with, because every local context is different. And you have to, of course, rely on what you know, but also you have to take some leap of faith. And I think, we definitely will sit down and form a small team together with the existing team of the West Kowloon Cultural District. We start to think both along the lines that we know but also think across, so we would end up to meet the expectations of the present and of the future.
Q6) How could you select the collection in the M+? Is there any estimated date for opening the museum?
Mr Nittve: On the first question, I think it’s too early to say. We would be very careful in developing a collection policy and I think we should have very precise guidelines for how you go about this when you start building collection. And it is something that we have to do over the coming half year, to a year, and probably start building the collection sometime next year. I do take up the post in January; even though I would come here quite frequently over the autumn. But I also have to finish my job in Stockholm. As for the deadline for opening the museum, would Graham like to say something about that?
Mr Sheffield: All I can say, you know, clearly there will be a M+ in Phase 1. I mean there will be a mixture of facilities in Phase 1, as you already know part of which will be M+. I think it’s all really I can say in this stage.
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