How Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour doubles as a floating art gallery

The city’s premier art space draws millions with its large-scale installations by artists like Kaws in a space bigger than the M+ museum

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One of the two giant rubber ducks by Florentijn Hofman, anchored at Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 10:00am, 23 Apr 2025

There’s one venue that has revolutionised the way art is consumed in Hong Kong over the past decade or so. It isn’t the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, home to Art Basel; neither is it M+, the undoubted quality of the art museum’s extensive collection notwithstanding, and nor is it any of the city’s many clusters of private galleries. Instead, one of the venues most responsible for popularising art in the city is one that many of its residents walk past, gaze at or cross over every day, and might not immediately think of as an art space: Victoria Harbour.

In recent years, the waterway that defines the city has hosted a series of head-turning, agenda-setting artworks. The die was cast in 2013, with the pioneering visit of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s Rubber Duck, a 16.5-metre-high replica of the classic bath toy that won the city’s hearts; the duck returned to the harbour a decade later accompanied by a friend.

The KAWS: HOLIDAY sculptural piece at Victoria Harbour. Photo: Felix Wong

Then, in 2019, a 37.5-metre-long, inflatable incarnation of US art celeb Kaws’ mouse-like character sprawled across the harbour. Rather more enigmatic were the harbour’s 2024 visitors – a collection of glowing ovoids that spilled into it from neighbouring Tamar Park, and Japanese hi-tech art collective teamLab’s “Resonating Life Which Continues to Stand” exhibition, part of the Art@Harbour initiative from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), which kicked off in 2022. Then, in December 2024, the skies above the harbour were lit up by the city’s first pyrotechnic drone show, as part of Hong Kong’s ubiquitous recent descent into panda-related delirium.

It’s fairly obvious why any artist would like the harbour as a backdrop for their work: it’s one of the world’s most iconic scenes. It has the advantage of being able to both frame and become part of any work that’s floated on its waters.

“Rather than serving merely as a backdrop for artworks, the harbour itself becomes part of the installations,” says a spokesperson for the LCSD. “The expansive views and reflective waters enhance the visual impact, facilitating visitors to experience art in a context that is both inspiring and immersive.”

Two giant inflatable giant pandas on the waterfront opposite the Tsim Sha Tsui Cultural Centre. Photo: Edmond So

Indeed, the location, according to a teamLab spokesperson, “was one of the unique points of this exhibition in Hong Kong.