Chinese trailblazer Madame Song to open special exhibition at M+, Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China, will open to the public at its West Gallery, following the success of M+’s first Special Exhibition Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now.
Centred around the life and times of Song Huai-Kuei (1937–2006), a legend in the spheres of Chinese art, film, music, and fashion from the 1980s to the 2000s, the exhibition will feature more than 320 objects to narrate Song’s fascinating biography and her underestimated influence on transforming China through reform and opening-up in the 1980s into a cosmopolitan and culturally diverse society today.
Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China is the first-ever museum exhibition in the world dedicated to Song Huai-Kuei—widely known during her lifetime as Madame Song—whose extraordinary story offers a lens through which the audience can appreciate the significant transformation of China’s visual culture after the country’s reform and opening-up to the world.?
Madame Song’s life encapsulated major milestones and turning points of contemporary China. Song succeeded in traversing political, social, and artistic boundaries to connect East and West and transform China’s cultural landscape. Her impact on the development of China’s visual culture is tremendous.
Dr Pi Li, curator of Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China and former Sigg Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs, M+
Together with her husband, Bulgarian fibre artist Maryn Varbanov, Song fostered a rich community of avant-garde artists and, in her role as Pierre Cardin’s chief representative in China, cultivated an international network of filmmakers, actors and actresses, musicians and fashion designers. In her circle were award-winning filmmakers/directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Chen Kaige, Jiang Wen, Tsui Hark, Yonfan and Zhang Yimou; acclaimed actors/actresses Chen Chong, Gong Li, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Liu Xiaoqing; fashion designer John Galliano and Eddie Lau Pui-kei and musician Cui Jian, to name but a few. Song’s extensive social network and impact on China’s contemporary cultural development made her one of the most important figures in China’s elite cultural circle in the 1980s and 1990s.
My mother Song Huai-Kuei influenced many of her contemporaries and creatives of subsequent generations through her unique vision and charisma. I am very pleased to see the stories of her life unfold in front of the eyes of a global audience through the thoughtful curation of M+.
Boryana Varbanov, daughter of Song Huai-Kuei, says,
Discover Madame Song’s fascinating persona, multifaceted professional life, and influential vision for intercultural exchange
Organised thematically and divided into five sections, the exhibition brings into dialogue Song’s multiple identities as an artist, entrepreneur, fashionista, and cultural ambassador. From making and exhibiting innovative art to staging fashion shows and training the first generation of Chinese models, Song played an eminent role in cultivating a progressive creative scene and a modern, international lifestyle in China in the 1980s. Featuring a diverse array of exhibits such as rare archival materials, garments from prominent fashion designers, movie costumes and footage, artworks, and large-scale tapestry installations, the exhibition unpacks the relationships between the avant-garde spirit and commercial culture in China as well as international representations of traditional China in film and fashion.
The opening section ‘Who is Madame Song?’ explores Song’s unique public persona and captivates aura through some of the most spectacular Pierre Cardin garments worn by her, presented alongside personal documents, photographs, and video footage.
The second section ‘Artist’ illustrates Song and Varbanov’s groundbreaking practice as the couple broke away from the conventions of Socialist Realism and drew on traditional and folk cultures to develop a modernist artistic language, while fostering a younger generation of avant-garde artists in China.
The third section ‘Entrepreneur’? highlights Song’s contribution to the establishment of Pierre Cardin’s business in China, which in turn catalysed the emergence of the Chinese fashion industry and laid the ground for other foreign fashion brands to enter the market. This section also highlights Song’s instrumental role in fostering the development of a cosmopolitan lifestyle in Beijing in the 1980s, particularly through her initiative to open the Beijing branch of the Paris-based restaurant Maxim’s and serving as its manager for over two decades, which became the meeting place for the local and international cultural elites.
The fourth section ‘Fashionista’ foregrounds Song’s pioneering role in cultivating the Chinese fashion ecosystem, from training China’s first crop of professional models, organising some of the earliest fashion shows in China, to bringing Chinese models to the international stage. It also highlights Song’s important contribution to changing the perception and self-expression of a new generation of modern Chinese women through fashion and modelling.
In addition to showcasing her skilful transition between cultural identities, the final section of the exhibition ‘Cultural Ambassador’? shows how Western fashion designers from Song’s circle such as Yves Saint Laurent and Gianfranco Ferré drew inspiration from traditional Chinese imagery, while investigating how Chinese creators from film and fashion such as Guo Pei and Ma Ke incorporated elements of their own culture into their works amid China’s international branding strategies.
Madame Song may not be a household name today, yet her life and legacy continue to fascinate and inspire us. We are proud to be able to stage such a remarkable exhibition with our collections, which demonstrates the strength of M+’s interdisciplinary practice. Madame Song is a figure everyone interested in the roots of Chinese contemporary visual culture needs to know. I look forward to sharing this thoughtfully curated exhibition with audiences from Hong Kong and beyond.
Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+
Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China, Opening 29th July: M+
Tickets to the exhibition are available for online purchase via the M+ website, West Kowloon Cultural District website, West Kowloon Cultural District App, Cityline, China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited, Fliggy, Klook, KKday and Trip.com. M+ Members and Patrons enjoy exclusive benefits and discounts.
Coinciding with the opening of the exhibition, Thames & Hudson and M+ will jointly publish Madame Song: A Life in Art and Fashion, a biography of Song’s remarkable story written by Dr Pi Li, curator of Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China and former Sigg Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs at M+. The publication contains more than 250 rarely seen images and archival materials illustrating the life and times of Song. It also includes contributions from Song’s family and friends as well as essays by the exhibition’s curators Wu Mo and Tanja Cunz.
In response to the exhibition, M+ Cinema will also feature a thematic programme in its Winter Edition from January to March 2024 focusing on cultural exchange in China during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the changing roles of women in Chinese society. The programme will feature key works from the era including Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987) and Mi Jiashan’s The Troubleshooters (1989).
M+ will also present a series of public programmes including a free, open panel discussion by curators of the exhibition, Dr Pi Li, Dr Wu Mo and Tanja Cunz at 14:00 on Saturday, 29 July 2023. The event unveils the life of Madame Song and her influence in shaping visual culture in China. Moderated by Cici Xiang, an international model and writer, the talk will be conducted in English and Mandarin. Simultaneous interpretation in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin will be available.
Programme details of other talks, workshops, and drop-in activities will be announced in due course.
The Special Exhibition Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China is financially supported by the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The exhibition’s Airline Partner is Cathay Pacific Airways while its Hotel Partner is Rosewood Hong Kong.
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 twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, it is 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. M+ is 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 twenty-first century.
