一座新美術館在香港引發的憂慮

HONG KONG — At the waterfront site destined for a vast new center for the arts here, the view across Victoria Harbor is one to marvel at — an urban jungle of high-rises that together make up the city’s famous skyline.

香港——在用來興建大型本地新藝術中心的海濱，維多利亞灣另一側的景色令人驚歎，那高樓林立的都市叢林構成了這座城市著名的天際線。

The vista from the other side of the harbor could not be more different. Mostly barren land. A small construction zone. Some temporary buildings. And a sign announcing in big orange capital letters: “West Kowloon Cultural District.”

海灣另一頭的遠景與此處迥異。大部分是荒涼的土地。這裏是一小片建設區。有一些臨時建築。一塊牌子上用橘紅色的大寫字母醒目地寫着“西九文化區”。

This is where a “museum of visual culture” called M+ (for “museum plus”) is scheduled to be built as a key part of the new complex, a mammoth government-sponsored project budgeted at $2.8 billion. By the end of 2019, according to the current timeline, many of the area’s components, including the 650,000-square-foot museum, will be ready to open to the public.

名爲M+（意爲“博物館及更多”）的“視覺文化博物館”將在這裏興建，它是這片新建築羣的一個重要組成。這個建築羣是政府贊助的大型項目，預算達28億美元。根據目前的規劃，到2019年底，這裏的很多項目都將對公衆開放，其中也包括了這座65萬平方英尺的藝術館。

But as plans for M+ move forward, questions are mounting about whether the original vision — a wide-ranging art museum that would put Hong Kong on the global cultural map — can ever be fully realized.

但是，隨着和M+相關的計劃逐步推進，很多問題也開始浮現出來：M+最初的計劃是打造一個內容廣泛的藝術館，令香港躋身全球文化圖景之中，這個目的究竟是否能夠完全達成呢？

In recent years, both M+ and the larger project have been troubled by delays and the departures of high-level staff members. More worrying now are concerns that M+ may not be able to maintain the curatorial independence and distance from politics necessary for a world-class museum to thrive. Many members of Hong Kong’s art community describe a growing feeling of “nervousness,” especially among Hong Kong government officials, about art and a fear of provoking Beijing.

近年來，M+與它所屬的這個大型項目都飽受延期困擾，不少高層員工紛紛離去。如今，更讓人擔心的是，M+可能無法保持策展的獨立性，以及與政治的距離，二者都是打造世界級藝術館所必不可少的。香港藝術界的許多人士都表示對藝術的“焦慮”情緒，以及對刺激北京的憂慮與日俱增，特別是在香港政府官員之中。

In February, the first show of works from the museum’s already extensive collection of Chinese contemporary art will open at a Hong Kong exhibition space after previous runs in Umea, Sweden, and Manchester, England. It will include a large-scale installation by the Beijing government’s artistic bête noire, Ai Weiwei, as well as a series of photographs by Liu Heung Shing of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. The show is being promoted as the first to recount the chronological development of Chinese contemporary art without rupture. But it will have a less challenging title than the one it bore abroad — “Right Is Wrong” — and a different catalog.

二月，藝術館將在香港一處展覽空間內舉辦第一次展覽，展品是從博物館目前豐富的中國當代藝術收藏中選出的展品，此前，這個展覽先在瑞典于默奧與英國曼徹斯特舉行。展品包括北京政府的眼中釘艾未未的大型裝置藝術，以及劉香成關於1989年天安門廣場民主示威的系列照片。展覽宣傳中說，它是第一個沒有斷層，按年代發展詳細展示中國當代藝術的展覽。但是這次展覽將不會沿用海外展覽富於挑戰色彩的名字——“正確就是錯誤”(Right Is Wrong)，展品目錄也將有所不同。

Unlike mainland China, Hong Kong has maintained Western-style protections for freedom of speech despite its return to Chinese rule in 1997. Still, worries about China’s growing influence on the territory have taken on greater urgency in the aftermath of the Umbrella Revolution last year, when thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand greater electoral freedom from the government in Beijing.

和中國大陸不同，香港雖然於1997年迴歸中國，但一直維持着對西方式言論自由的保護。但是，人們擔心中國對這一地區的影響在增加，特別是去年的雨傘革命，更是加深了這一憂慮，當時成千上萬的抗議者走上街頭，向北京政府要求更大的選舉自由。

“I have no concern that the building will not be delivered,” said Uli Sigg, a former Swiss diplomat who in 2012 donated a large part of his collection, widely regarded as one of the most important and comprehensive of contemporary Chinese art, to M+. (Selections from it make up the coming exhibition.)

“我不擔心這座建築不能交付，”前瑞士外交官烏利·希克(Uli Sigg)說，他的收藏被廣泛認爲是最重要、最全面的當代中國藝術收藏之一，2012年，他將其中的大部分捐獻給了M+，部分精選將在即將到來的展覽上展出。

But, he noted, “Then there is also the question of what the mood will be in Hong Kong in a few years.”

但是，他指出，“幾年內香港的氛圍也是問題。”

Plans for the building, designed by the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, have been completed; the contractor has been chosen; and the museum’s core team is in place. The museum has also been building a collection. According to its own estimates, it has spent $62 million on acquisitions so far and received donated works valued at more than $175 million. But none of this has come easily.

這棟建築由瑞士事務所赫爾佐格與德梅隆(Herzog & de Meuron)設計；方案已經完成，承包商亦已選好；藝術館的核心團隊已經就位。館方已經獲得了一批藏品。根據館方自己的估計，迄今它已經花費6200萬美元購買藏品，並獲得價值超過1.75億美元的捐贈物品。但這一切都得之不易。

“We have achieved everything we set out to do so far,” said Lars Nittve, 62, the executive director of M+ and previously the founding director of the Tate Modern and the Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art in Sweden. “But it’s probably taken four to five times more work to make it happen compared to my experience in the London and Scandinavian situations. Almost every day and night is spent arguing.”

“迄今，我們要做的事都已經完成了，”M+的執行館長，62歲的李立偉(Lars Nittve)說，他也是泰特現代藝術館與瑞典馬爾默當代藝術中心的創始館長。“但是和我在倫敦與北歐的經驗相比，這裏要花費四五倍的工作。幾乎每日每夜都在爭執中度過。”

Much of the reason for this wrangling with bureaucrats and government officials, Mr. Nittve and others said, is the lack of a developed museum culture in Hong Kong and, more generally, Asia. Only in recent years has mainland China had a sudden increase in contemporary art museums. Many, like the Himalayas Museum in Shanghai and the M Woods Museum in Beijing, were spearheaded by real estate developers and private collectors and are privately run.

李立偉和其他人說，許多同官僚及政府官員產生的爭執都源自於香港，乃至亞洲缺乏發達的藝術館文化。直至近年來，中國大陸才突然涌現出大批當代藝術館。像上海的喜馬拉雅美術館和北京的M Woods美術館等許多藝術館都是由房地產開發商和私人收藏家牽頭，私人經營的。

Although M+ is not directly under government control, the museum has scarcely been insulated from politics. Currently, it is financed wholly by public funds. Representatives from government departments have been appointed to the cultural district committee responsible for overseeing it, and its chairwoman is Carrie Lam, the Hong Kong chief secretary and the city’s second-ranking official.

儘管M+並不直接屬於政府管轄，但亦很難與政治絕緣。目前，它的資金完全依靠公共資金。政府部門代表委派文化區委員會負責監督，該委員會主席是香港政務司司長、本地二號高官林鄭月娥。

The involvement of the government, some say, has made the museum vulnerable to political pressures.

有些人說，政府的介入令藝術館更易受到政治壓力。

“The problem in Hong Kong is not censorship,” said Pi Li, the Sigg senior curator at M+. “The problem in Hong Kong is self-censorship. It’s self-censorship hidden in the procedures, so it’s difficult to distinguish.”

“香港的問題並不是審查，”M+的西克展自身策展人皮力說。“香港的問題是自我審查。它的自我審查隱藏在各種程序之中，很難分辨。”

Mr. Pi said that procedural delays cropped up over the summer during discussions about plans for the exhibition opening in February. It will be the first time that the Sigg collection will be shown in Hong Kong since Mr. Sigg donated or sold more than 1,500 works to the museum.

皮力說，（去年）夏天就2月展覽方案進行討論期間，這種同程序有關的拖延開始浮現。希克將超過1500件藏品捐贈或出售給M+，這次展覽將是希克的藏品首次在香港亮相。

Because the exhibition had already been on a European tour, Mr. Pi said, bringing it to Hong Kong should have been a straightforward proposition. Instead, he said, museum committee members took issue with not only the “Right Is Wrong” title but also some of the show’s educational aspects, which they said were insufficiently tailored to Hong Kong viewers.

皮力說，這次展覽已經在歐洲巡展過了，把它帶來香港，本應是一個不復雜的事情。但是，他說，博物館委員會成員們不僅就“正確就是錯誤”這個名字提出異議，而且也就展覽的某些教育層面發表意見，說它們不適合香港觀衆。

“I think the officials here are still trying to half-guess how Beijing would feel when an exhibition is mounted, so they tend to be very, very cautious,” said Ada Wong, a community cultural advocate and a member of the museum committee.

“我覺得，推出某個展覽時，官員們仍然在試圖猜測北京的感受，所以他們會非常、非常謹慎，”社區文化宣傳者與藝術館委員會成員之一艾達·王（Ada Wong，音譯）說。

All the works in the show were retained. But in Hong Kong, it will be called simply “M+ Sigg Collection: Four Decades of Chinese Contemporary Art.” Mr. Pi and other curators emphasized that if there were any censorship of content, in the Sigg collection show or in future exhibitions, they would quit.

展覽中的所有作品都得以保留，但是在香港，它的名字將被稱爲“M+希克展：中國當代藝術40年”(M+ Sigg Collection: Four Decades of Chinese Contemporary Art)。皮力和其他策展人強調，如果希克展或未來的任何展覽的內容遭受審查，他們就退出。

“We came to Hong Kong because here, unlike in mainland China, you have freedom of speech,” said Mr. Pi. “But it’s not like freedom of speech in the United States. You don’t have it all the time. Here you must continually test it, maintain it and protect it.”

“我們來到香港是因爲，這裏不像中國大陸，你擁有言論自由，”皮力說。“但是這裏的言論自由和美國的又不一樣，不是隨時都有。在這裏，你得一直測試它、維持它、保護它。”

Still, the most immediate challenge facing M+ is clear. In September, Mr. Nittve said he would be stepping down as executive director in January, when his contract will expire.

不過，目前M+面臨的最迫切的挑戰也很清晰。9月，李立偉說，自己的合同將於2016年1月到期，屆時他將不再擔任執行館長。

Mr. Nittve has been with M+ since 2011. But after delays in the schedule for the museum’s completion, he said, he felt unable to commit to an additional four years.

李立偉是從2011年開始加入M+的。但是自從藝術館竣工日期延遲後，他說，他覺得自己沒有能力再完成一個四年任期了。

Though he will continue as an adviser for the project, the search for a successor is underway. Among the many attributes required, most of those involved seem to agree that one quality will be especially important: a willingness to deal with politics.

儘管他還將出任這一項目的顧問，目前他的繼任者正在尋找當中。在所需的許多條件之中，最重要的一項似乎是認同一種非常重要的品質：願意同政治打交道。

“Politics are real here,” Mr. Nittve said. “It has real consequences, and you have to take it very seriously.”

“在這裏，政治是真實的，”李立偉說。“它會產生真實的後果，你得非常嚴肅地看待它。”

He added: “In Europe, it’s like this or like that. But actually, nothing fundamental really changes. Here they can.”

他補充說：“在歐洲，政治可能是這樣也可能是那樣。但事實上，最基礎的東西不會改變。但在這裏是會改變的。”