Announcing the acquisition of a complete and growing archive of works by YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES

A complete and growing archive of more than 500 works by pioneering digital artists YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, now part of the M+ Collections

In an internationally unprecedented move, M+, Hong Kong’s new museum of visual culture, has acquired YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES’ entire body of work, past and future.

YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES: THE COMPLETE WORKS (YHCHANG.COM/AP2) contains all of the text-based animations produced by the artist duo and published to their enduringly popular website, www.yhchang.com. This acquisition also includes the artists’ hundreds of gallery installations, lecture performances, drafts, and alternative and translated versions of artworks, some of which have never before been published or exhibited. This extraordinary collection, which will be updated twice each year for as long as the artists continue to make new work and present projects internationally, will also be made available to future visitors to M+, on-site and on demand. 

Established in 1999 and based in Seoul, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES consists of South Korean artist Young-Hae Chang and American artist Marc Voge. The two have worked collaboratively and online for nearly 20 years, and were among the first to use the internet as a platform for artistic experimentation. Exploring the dynamics of media, technology, and power in our globalised world, their trenchant and witty work takes the form of deceptively simple computer animations that use bold, frenetic texts synchronised with music composed by the artists. These genre-busting artworks combine moving image art, music, poetry, graphic design, and web design to explore contemporary life from the particular position of South Korea, as well as from a globally fluid and informed viewpoint. With work created in twenty-six languages, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES has exhibited at most major international contemporary art museums over the past two decades. Their website—www.yhchang.com—regularly attracts thousands of visits per month, from audiences in more than 100 countries.

Suhanya Raffel, Executive Director of M+, underscores the importance of the acquisition: "The M+ Collections have always been at the heart of the institution. They embody M+’s mission of being a global, multidisciplinary museum of 20th and 21st century visual culture, where digital culture is absolutely integral. No other artists working online can boast the longevity and continued relevance of YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, making them undeniably worthy of this high-profile position in the M+ Collections."  

Doryun Chong, Deputy Director and Chief Curator of M+, emphasises the cross-disciplinary significance of the artists’ work and the unique collaborative nature of the acquisition: "YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES’ groundbreaking oeuvre is an excellent fit for M+, a new museum of contemporary visual culture located in Asia, where the largest number of netizens reside, and where most innovations for the future are born. We are extremely proud to be investing in the life’s work of YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, the trailblazer of internet art. YHCHANG.COM/AP2 will function as a crucial anchor in the M+ Collections, and our commitment to their work is practiced through ongoing collaboration with the artists and caretaking of the archive that continues to grow." 

YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES says: "We’re lucky dogs."

To celebrate M+’s pioneering acquisition, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES will present THE ARTIST TALK TO END ALL ARTIST TALKS—OR, THE STRUGGLE SESSION CONTINUES! at JC Cube Auditorium, Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts, Hong Kong, on the evening of Friday, August 31, 2018. This will be the duo’s final-ever artist talk, and will launch the symposium "M+ Matters: Art and Design in the Digital Realm," taking place on Friday, August 31 and Saturday, September 1 at Tai Kwun. 

For media enquiries
Hong Kong: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority
press@wkcda.hk

International: SUTTON Hong Kong
wkcda@suttonpr.com

About M+
M+ is a museum dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the 20th and 21st centuries. In Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, we are building one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world, with a bold ambition to establish ourselves as one of the world’s leading cultural institutions. Our aim is to create a new kind of museum that reflects our unique time and place, a museum that builds on Hong Kong’s historic balance of the local and the international to define a distinctive and innovative voice for Asia’s 21st century. 

About the M+ Collections 
The M+ Collections encompass the disciplines of design and architecture, moving image, and visual art, and the thematic area of Hong Kong visual culture. They consist of the M+ Collection, the M+ Sigg Collection, and the M+ Collection Archives. Established in 2012, the M+ Collections include almost 5,000 works and more than 12,000 archival items.

About West Kowloon Cultural District
Located on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, the West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong. With a complex of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, and will provide twenty-three hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.