Swire Properties’ Arts Month 2024 returned once again in March, continuing our enduring commitment to art and culture as an essential component of successful communities. This year’s version of the long-standing tradition featured a collection of site-specific art experiences throughout Hong Kong.

Highlights included a new permanent addition to Taikoo Place’s public art collection – “SHELF II” by renowned British sculptor Antony Gormley. This unique work invites passers-by to reflect on their own position within the city, time and space. Taikoo Place also hosted two textile art installations by acclaimed Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos at ArtisTree and Two Taikoo Place. “ArtisTree Selects: Enchanted Forest” is a large, kaleidoscopic sculpture that envisions the city's urban infrastructure as a forest of contemporary concrete trees that come alive at night; and “Valkyrie Seondeok” was inspired by powerful women who have made a difference in the world.

2024 also marked the 12th year of Swire Properties’ partnership with Art Basel Hong Kong. The fair’s hallmark “Encounters” section, dedicated to large-scale projects, featured an installation called “Doan” at Pacific Place by Australian artist Daniel Boyd. This moving image work used a mirrored stage floor and window treatment to play on the movement of light throughout the day. Employing dots as both a visual and conceptual element, Doan explores the themes of identity, memory, perception and history.

Swire Properties VIP Lounge at the fair also returned. Called “HORIZON” and designed by Snøhetta, the lounge balanced the evocative interplay between a dramatic reflective canopy representing the sky, and the soft, colourful ground below. It was also the stage for this year’s live Dialogues Series, bringing together leading experts and voices to celebrate art and design, explore contemporary issues and inspire audiences through a series of talks and panel discussions.

To celebrate the opening of Six Pacific Place, we commissioned Jonathan Jay Lee, an award-winning artist renowned for his depictions of Hong Kong’s streets, to create a mural showcasing the transformation of the Pacific Place area over the years. His artistic interpretation depicts how our placemaking efforts harmoniously integrated historical elements into Six Pacific Place. The mural will be displayed until around December 2025.

HKRI Taikoo Hui hosted the seventh edition of the “Play Me, I’m Yours” public art programme from 30 May to 14 July. This year’s version combined AI with the piano to create a multi-sensory musical space. The mall was adorned with sleek piano key installations and a futuristic piano on which customers could generate personalised AI melodies. A giant “Cube Piano” installation spanning the floors also formed a striking visual that captured the music’s rhythms. Two more pianos painted with AI-designed graffiti were also available to play.

After the event, we donated the three elaborately adorned pianos to the Linfen Community Activity Centre in Shanghai’s Jing’an District, the Shanghai Children’s Home, and the Xincheng Primary School in Bachu County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Since the first “Play Me, I’m Yours” event in 2018, HKRI Taikoo Hui has donated 73 pianos, bringing public art to urban centres and remote mountainous areas.

When the inflatable structure used in the “Cube Piano” installation was disassembled, we repurposed the used fabric. It was combined with other eco-friendly elements to create multi-functional, fashionable bags that merged art and sustainability for everyday use.

In September and October, Brickell City Centre partnered with the Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center and the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami to present a performing arts programme designed to immerse audiences in the vibrant world of Hispanic cultures through live music and dance. The aim was to celebrate the values of unity, heritage and the essence of rich and diverse Hispanic traditions.