When: Until January 5, 2025
Where: M+, West Kowloon
What: The first full-scale retrospective of renowned architect IM Pei makes its way to M+ this summer. Pei’s prolific body of work spans seven decades and features high-profile, widely recognised structures such as the National Gallery of Art East Building in Washington, DC, the modernisation of the Grand Louvre in Paris, the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha and, of course, Hong Kong’s Bank of China Tower. The exhibition features more than 300 objects, including original drawings, architectural models, photographs, films and other archival documentation, much of which hasn’t been exhibited before. They will be divided into six themes, ‘Pei’s Cross-Cultural Foundations’, ‘Real Estate and Urban Redevelopment’, ‘Art and Civic Form’, ‘Power, Politics and Patronage’, ‘Material and Structural Innovation’ and ‘Reinterpreting History through Design’, to illustrate the full social, economic and cultural impact of Pei’s legacy. Furthermore, to put Pei’s work into a contemporary context, the exhibition will showcase newly commissioned photographs of his buildings by a younger generation of photographers, including South Ho, Naho Kubota, Lee Kuo-min, Giovanna Silva, Mohamed Somji, Tian Fangfang and Yoneda Tomoko.
