M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, announces the upcoming M+ Facade commission Dancer in the Mirror Field (2025) by Korean artist Ayoung Kim (b. 1979).

The work will be screened nightly on the M+ Facade from 3 October to 28 December 2025, commissioned jointly with Powerhouse, Sydney, and supported by presenting sponsor Julius Baer, the leading Swiss wealth management group.
 


A Futuristic Competition and the Pursuit of Optimisation

Dancer in the Mirror Field is a speculative fiction film exploring technology, labour, and identity. Set in a futuristic city, the film depicts an annual competition organised by a delivery service platform seeking the individual with the most optimised movements.

Coordinated by a mysterious entity, the contest reflects on society’s fixation with efficiency and the performative effects it imposes on human bodies under technological and economic systems of control.

The protagonist, Ernst Mo—an anagram of “monster”—appears in three different versions that compete in spaces where past and future intertwine.
Following algorithmic instructions, the three Mos begin in a massive structure resembling a high-tech gladiatorial coliseum, inspired by Hong Kong’s sleek shopping malls, and continue through a neon-lit parallel-universe Hong Kong in a dramatic chase sequence.


 
Visual Language and Digital Cross-Referencing

Throughout the film, motifs from Kim’s previous works reappear alongside digital cameos of real objects from the collections of M+ and Powerhouse.

Employing motion capture, 3D game-engine rendering, and AI-generated imagery, the work extends Kim’s acclaimed fiction series ‘Delivery Dancer’ (2022–ongoing).

 Visually, it draws inspiration from classic 1980s Hong Kong action cinema and the animated series Aeon Flux (1991–1995), reflecting how human bodies and perception are reshaped within regimes of mechanical efficiency.
 
 

Expanding International Collaboration

The film will be presented nightly on the M+ Facade in Hong Kong and will travel in 2026 to Powerhouse Sydney as part of a major exhibition examining 《Mall Culture》.

This commission exemplifies cross-institutional collaboration between leading Asian and Oceanian museums and demonstrates how Kim continues to expand her fictional universe on a global stage.

References

• M+ Official Page – <i>Dancer in the Mirror Field</i>〉
• M+ Press Release – M+ announces new Facade commission Ayoung Kim: <i>Dancer in the Mirror Field</i>〉
• Powerhouse Sydney Press Release