M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, is delighted to announce a brand-new work Hand Me Your Trust by Swiss spatial video art pioneer Pipilotti Rist.

Text by Art Central Hong Kong
Images courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Luhring Augustine © Stefan Rohner
February 16, 2023

M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, is delighted to announce a brand-new work Hand Me Your Trust by Swiss spatial video art pioneer Pipilotti Rist. Commissioned by M+ and supported by Art Basel and UBS, the work will be shown on the M+ Facade daily from 7 to 9pm from 18 March to 21 May 2023 and every Saturday and Sunday from 7 to 9pm from 22 May to 17 June 2023.

Hand Me Your Trust is a site-specific moving image work created specifically for the M+ Facade, set within the undulating architectures of Hong Kong’s world famous skyline along the Victoria Harbour. Presented in the hustle and bustle of a city with millions of inhabitants, the work incorporates Rist’s typically vivid colour palettes and freeform camera work, echoing the dynamic shifts of scale of Hong Kong’s urban landscape.

Rist approaches the concept of the hand from a variety of scales, mirroring the dynamics of the city itself from an intimate human scale, to one that is the size of a building. As the hands weave and chart a path around various objects at varying velocities, Rist takes on not only Hong Kong’s design and architecture heritage, but also the individual hands that sculpted, placed, and forged these ubiquitous forms into being. Hand Me Your Trust is an energetic celebration of the many people who played a part in building the city and our world with their hands. It explores the multitude of dynamic motions that weave and turn like the traffic encountered in our day-to-day lives. Hands can be seen as extensions of our emotional states and enablers of our creative impulses. They are also mediums for the poetry of pure motion. Hands are beautiful objects in themselves.

Rist’s sensuous video art turns one of the largest media screens in the world, M+ Facade, into an intimate introspection on the power of human touch, reconceptualising our everyday movements and manoeuvres into kaleidoscopic tactile images. In Rist’s words, ‘my work looks at hands not only as working and creating, but also ornamentally: our hands can be beautiful extensions of our emotions, to communicate with other living beings without words.’ Hand Me Your Trust emerges as a cordial gesture to audiences in Hong Kong — an invitation to embrace and appreciate each unexpected encounter, every minute interaction and the small achievements in our everyday lives. The collective contributions of our personal touch can together build cities, communities, and vibrant histories.

Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, emphasizes the importance of M+’s continued collaboration with Art Basel. ‘I am truly excited for M+ to further strengthen our partnership with Art Basel this year by presenting a fascinating new moving image work by Pipilotti Rist on the M+ Facade. In light of Hong Kong’s long-awaited reopening to the Mainland and the rest of the world, this spectacular commission allows us to extend our welcoming hands to new audiences from around the world, reinforcing Hong Kong’s status as an international cultural hub by spotlighting the imaginative possibilities of contemporary visual culture.’

Angelle Siyang-Le, Director, Art Basel Hong Kong, says, ‘We are delighted to collaborate with M+ once again this year to premiere Pipilotti Rist's extraordinary video installation, and truly excited to be able to share this captivating work with local audiences and international visitors returning to the city for the first time since its reopening. More than ever before, the Hong Kong Arts Month this March will showcase the incredible vibrancy of the city's art scene—from its world-class cultural institutions to leading galleries and artist run spaces—reaffirming its position as a cultural crossroads in the heart of Asia.’

Doryun Chong, Deputy Director, Curatorial and Chief Curator, M+, highlights Rist’s prominence as a longstanding central figure within the international video art scene. ‘Rist is globally recognised as a trailblazer in experimental video and installation art, with her work characterised by a surreal, fantastical, and colourful visual language. Her practice continues to reflect on our ever-evolving relationships with the constructed world around us, examining the intricate interplay between human vulnerability and strength through emerging technologies.’

Pauline J. Yao, Lead Curator, Visual Art, M+ and Sunny Cheung, Curator, Design and Architecture, M+, say, ‘Hand Me Your Trust is enchanting, striking yet delicate and sensitive. From the way we caress, draw, and sign, down to our fingerprint, which acts as our own personal signature, Rist ponders the importance of the hand, as not only a practical and versatile tool that does our bidding, but one that is innately inscribed with our own unique, personal character.’

Pipilotti Rist shares her excitement for the new commission’s premiere in Hong Kong. ‘I was drawn to the M+ Facade due to its tremendous size, quality, and form, as an extraordinary platform to communicate and connect with a diverse audience in Hong Kong and beyond. I hope that the images and philosophies presented in Hand Me Your Trust may leap off the Facade and extend far beyond in its impact, empowering audiences to recognise the immense power, tenderness and potential contained within their two hands.’

For the latest information on the commission, please visit www.mplus.org.hk.