K11 takes the cultural experience to the next level with quixotic public artworks on its new sixth floor, providing visitors with an insightful escape from daily reality.

TEXT: CoBo Editorial
IMAGES: Courtesy of K11 MUSEA

If you are hankering for an escape into an alternative and insightful reality filled with expansive exhibition spaces, a sculpture garden and a diverse array of quixotic public art installations, the newly launched sixth floor at K11 MUSEA, the world’s first cultural-retail destination, is the place for you to visit.

As part of ambitious efforts to introduce contemporary art to the public and take the visitor experience to a whole new immersive level, the sixth floor presents indoor exhibitions spaces in the K11 Art and Cultural Centre on the East Wing, and outdoor exhibition spaces filled with vivid and colourful artwork installations, set amongst retail and F&B outlets in the Gourmet Chamber on the West Wing.

The outdoor section is essentially a rare sculpture park at the heart of the city. Half Big Suit (Verschnittskulptur-Serie) (2016) by Austrian contemporary artist Erwin Wurm is a definite highlight that summons the visitors’ attention immediately in this open space.

Often critical of contemporary culture, Wurm is known for creating art that fleshes out the absurdity found in mundane actions of everyday life, while addressing sculptural issues related to the physicality of the human body. He also does not shy from critically examining the mentality of his childhood during post-World War II Austria.

Half Big Suit exerts that exact same artistic and critical boldness. Comprising a figure dressed in a pale pink business suit, in an almost comical position with one leg extended in the air and half of his upper body missing, the sculpture inadvertently creates a sense of discomfort and distress. This is the magic of Wurm—he manipulates images of everyday life, distorting normalised action and activity and brings to life a farcical and invented alternate reality.

This sense of escapism from the onslaught of our daily uncertain existence while maintaining a largely self-aware outlook continues as visitors walk into the indoor area with a curated selection of blockbuster works across various sections and floors. This includes Yayoi Kusama’s The Moment of Regeneration (2004), Sterling Ruby’s Drag On (2013), Chris Huen Sin Kan’s Trees (2019).

One of the artworks definitely worth a look is Turner prize winner and Colombian artist Oscar Murillo’s día mundial de las aves migratorias (2017–18). Murillo’s work stands out for its subject matter as well as its medium of oil stick, graphite, and spray paint on canvas and linen. The title is a direct translation of World Migratory Bird Day—rather apt given the depiction of a small wooden boat filled with people trying to paddle towards a larger ship against a blackened and chaotic mixture of red and blue hues illustrating the uncertainty of travel, something we can all relate to right now.

The public art installations throughout the newly launched sixth floor provide a very real sense of the kind of art experience that befits our current reality, something that goes beyond our daily grind but narrates the underlying machinations of our lives today and in the future. For this reason alone, the sixth floor of K11 MUSEA is worth a visit.

For more information: https://www.k11musea.com/
6F, K11 MUSEA, 18 Salisbury Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong