Dystopian Futures at M+ Museum in Hong Kong

Why It Matters

The exhibition redefines sculpture’s possibilities, influencing curatorial trends and encouraging interdisciplinary collaborations in the global art market.

Key Takeaways

• Exhibition opens with "The Sutarin", evoking underground passage emergence.
• Complex sculptures like "Obat" and "Obat 5" explore scale and materiality.
• "Excavation" features massive hair mass, challenging traditional sculpture norms.
• Floating chandeliers reference alpine architecture as imagined floating cities.
• "Anagram" series blends ball joints, tendrils, resembling Frankenstein’s monster.

Summary

The M+ Museum’s latest show begins with "The Sutarin," a work that metaphorically guides visitors from an imagined underground passage into an open field of intricate sculptures. The installation quickly expands to include pieces titled "Obat" and "Obat 5," which play with varying scales and mixed materials, prompting viewers to reconsider the boundaries of three‑dimensional art.

Among the most striking works is "Excavation," a dense, hair‑like mass that confronts conventional notions of sculpture’s solidity and permanence. Complementing this are the glittering chandeliers, described as floating cities inspired by alpine architecture, which hover above the gallery and juxtapose natural forms with futuristic urban fantasies. The artist’s evolution from performance to object is evident in the "Anagram" series, where ball‑joint mechanisms intertwine with branch‑like tendrils, evoking a Frankenstein‑style assemblage.

Curatorial notes highlight the artist’s ongoing inquiry into what sculpture can become, emphasizing material hybridity and narrative ambiguity. The exhibition’s spatial choreography—moving from subterranean to open field, then to vertical installations—creates a narrative arc that mirrors the transition from hidden depths to speculative futures.

For Hong Kong’s cultural scene, the show signals a bold engagement with interdisciplinary practice, inviting audiences to contemplate the convergence of architecture, biology, and myth within contemporary art. It also positions M+ as a platform for avant‑garde works that challenge both aesthetic expectations and cultural narratives.

Original Description

From Seoul to Hong Kong, Lee Bul’s major survey continues at M+ (@mplusmuseum).

Here, M+ Artistic Director and Chief Curator Doryun Chong guides us through the show. Rather than focusing on individual works, the exhibition reads as something that unfolds across space, where different forms and ideas begin to connect. You stop moving from one piece to another, and start seeing how everything relates.

Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now

Mar 14–Aug 9, 2026

M+

Hong Kong 🇭🇰