"Digital Dunhuang – Tales of Heaven and Earth", the main exhibition presented by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum this year, will be staged from tomorrow (July 11) to October 22. The exhibition showcases Dunhuang grottoes and cultural relics and features cutting-edge multimedia technology, enabling visitors to view Dunhuang culture and art up close and enjoy tales of the Buddhist heaven as well as the ordinary world.
The exhibition will showcase over 100 exhibits including a replica of cave 285, the most wonderful cave at Mogao, built during the Western Wei period. The cave, being presented in Hong Kong for the first time, has been reproduced at full scale to reveal its murals and stucco statues. There are also virtual caves 45 and 254, and a huge digitised mural depicting Wutai Mountain in cave 61 (Five Dynasties period), together with precious artefacts and archives, interactive multimedia installations and audio-video programmes, to offer visitors an overview of the history and art of Dunhuang.
Brand-new multimedia programmes and interactive installations in the exhibition have been produced by using high-fidelity images and results of cave scanning provided by the Dunhuang Academy. Visitors will thus be given an opportunity to view Dunhuang art in minute detail and to acquire an in-depth understanding of life in the Buddhist heaven and the ordinary world as portrayed on the murals, so as to savour the tales of heaven and earth depicted in these paintings.
The Hong Kong Heritage Museum collaborated with the Dunhuang Academy in 2014 to hold the exhibition "Dunhuang – Untold Tales, Untold Riches", presenting the story of Dunhuang to the people of Hong Kong. The exhibition was at the time the largest of its kind organised by the museum. In 2015, a Letter of Intent on Collaboration was signed between the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and the Dunhuang Academy to strengthen collaboration and training of professionals between the two parties in various areas including curating, publicity and heritage conservation, resulting in the exhibition "Digital Dunhuang – Tales of Heaven and Earth".
With their vast repository of Buddhist art, the Dunhuang Caves have been acclaimed as an "Encyclopaedia of the Middle Ages". As early as the 1990s, the Dunhuang Academy had already collaborated with domestic and foreign scientific research institutions to explore the role of new technologies in preserving historical relics. In recent years, the Academy has even taken the initiative to share the results of the digitisation projects, allowing the public to browse selected caves and murals through the "Digital Dunhuang" website. The Mogao Grottos Digital Exhibition Centre has also been established to give visitors a new visual experience.
To tie in with the exhibition, the museum will launch a series of programmes, including concerts, educational activities, talks, guided tours and outreach drama performances. During the exhibition period, a video show entitled "A Thousand Years of Mogao Caves" will be screened and a mini-display on Dunhuang music culture will be held at the Function Place on the first floor of the museum.
An opening ceremony for the exhibition was held today (July 10). The officiating guests included the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam; Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Mr Yang Jian; the Vice-Governor of Gansu Province, Ms He Wei; the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Lau Kong-wah; the Deputy Chairman of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Mr Anthony Chow; the Vice-secretary General of Gansu Province, Mr Shi Peiwen; the Director of the Cultural Relics Bureau of Gansu Province, Ms Ma Yuping; the Deputy Director of the Dunhuang Academy, Mr Luo Huaqing; the Chairman of the Museum Advisory Committee, Mr Stanley Wong; the Vice Chairperson of Friends of Dunhuang (Hong Kong), Ms Lee Mei-yin; the Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Ms Michelle Li; and the Acting Museum Director of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Mr Brian Lam.
The exhibition is jointly presented by the LCSD and the Dunhuang Academy and jointly organised by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and the Dunhuang Academy. Solely sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, it is one of the exhibitions in the Hong Kong Jockey Club Series. The exhibition is also supported by Friends of Dunhuang (Hong Kong).
For details of the exhibition, please visit www.heritagemuseum.gov.hk/en_US/web/hm/exhibitions/data/exid252.html, or call 2180 8188 for enquiries.
The Hong Kong Heritage Museum is located at 1 Man Lam Road, Sha Tin.