Janet Cardiff's The Forty Part Motet Opens at M+

Most art you look at. This one you walk into. From 15 August 2026, M+ will host Janet Cardiff's The Forty Part Motet — one of the most quietly overwhelming sound works of the past quarter-century — in The Studio, and entry is free. Forty speakers, forty voices, one room you can move through as a 16th-century choir swells around you.

What is The Forty Part Motet?

The Forty Part Motet (2001) is a landmark sound installation by the Canadian artist Janet Cardiff (珍妮特・卡迪夫), born in 1957. The full title is The Forty Part Motet (A reworking of "Spem in Alium", by Thomas Tallis 1556), and the concept is as simple as it is moving.

Cardiff recorded forty members of the Salisbury Cathedral Choir singing Tallis's 16th-century sacred motet, each voice captured individually. She then arranged forty speakers in a large oval, one per singer. Stand in the centre and you hear the full choir; walk to the edge and you can lean towards a single voice. The piece runs about 14 minutes, looping with a candid recording of the choir chatting between takes.

The effect is spatial and intimate at once — music you experience from the inside, as the singers themselves would. It is the kind of work that rewards a slow, unhurried visit, and it sits naturally alongside M+'s growing run of sound and time-based art, such as its earlier tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto at M+.

Why this work matters

Few sound installations have travelled as widely or moved as many people as The Forty Part Motet. Since 2001 it has been shown everywhere from medieval cloisters to major museums, and it is regularly named among the most acclaimed sound works of the 21st century.

Its power is that it asks nothing technical of you. There is no wall text to decode and no single "right" place to stand. You simply walk in, choose your path among the speakers, and let Tallis's soaring polyphony do the rest. For first-time gallery-goers and seasoned regulars alike, it is one of the most accessible profound experiences in contemporary art.

That makes it a strong companion to the bigger shows on this summer. If you are planning a wider arts day, our guide to the best art exhibitions in Hong Kong this summer maps what else is worth your time across the city.

The M+ and MoMA connection

There is a quiet milestone buried in this opening. The Forty Part Motet is on loan from The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York — and it is the first project realised through the Memorandum of Understanding between M+ and MoMA, signed in February 2025.

In other words, this is not just a single visiting artwork; it is the opening note of a new institutional partnership between two of the world's leading museums of modern and contemporary art. For Hong Kong's cultural standing, that matters — and it hints at more cross-institution loans to come.

M+ has spent the past few years cementing itself as Asia's must-visit museum of visual culture, from blockbuster retrospectives to design-led shows like Design Ah! at M+ and the much-discussed Lee Bul exhibition. This loan adds an international dimension to that momentum.

How to visit M+

M+ sits in the West Kowloon Cultural District (西九文化區) at 38 Museum Drive, facing Victoria Harbour. The Forty Part Motet is shown in The Studio on Level B2. General admission to M+ is free, and this particular exhibition is free to enter — though some special exhibitions elsewhere in the museum are ticketed.

Tips before you go

A sound installation rewards a different kind of visit to a painting show. A few pointers to get the most from it.

For the rest of the season's cultural calendar, see our round-up of the best art exhibitions in Hong Kong this summer, or revisit M+'s recent highlights with our guide to the Lee Bul exhibition.

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