BOOTH M56

Nov 11, 2025 ~ Feb 11, 2026

When the entire city steps into the art season, the art industry is operating at a familiar, high-speed rhythm—dense openings, frequent social engagements, and condensed art-viewing experiences. Amid this now-familiar hustle and bustle, M Art Center attempts to create a moment of “pause and reflection”: at our main venue on 56 Moganshan Road, we present a special exhibition project—”Booth M56.”

As the name suggests, we have conceived and constructed the gallery itself as a complete “art fair booth.” Art fairs, with their efficient pace and concentrated energy, form an indispensable part of the contemporary art landscape. They bring together creativity, spark dialogue, and provide invaluable opportunities for institutions and the public to connect. While we gladly participate in this art season, we also find ourselves contemplating: as a gallery with a permanent space in the local context, can we simultaneously offer an alternative rhythm—a “nearby” that allows the gaze to linger and encourages deeper conversation? Can we create a more unhurried “parallel site,” where exchanges, within a familiar physical space, develop a different texture? “Booth M56″ is precisely such an exploration.

“M56″ is not only our geographical anchor since 2007 but also the conceptual pivot of this project. We have invited twelve artists to place their works—diverse in style and medium—within this deliberately constructed “booth” context. Here, each piece maintains its independent expression while also serving as a component in building this “simulated booth” environment. By replicating the spatial atmosphere and visual logic of an art fair, we aim to invite the audience into a realm that is both familiar and unfamiliar—one that bears the shell of an art fair yet retains the inherent essence of an art space.

This is not a form of resistance but rather an active act of “sampling” and response. We extract a typical unit of the art ecosystem and place it back into a stable environment where it can be contemplated at length. This prompts us to reflect: when stripped of the scale, crowds, and transactional pressures of an art fair, how might the communication between art and its audience transform? Will the essence of the artworks become more pronounced?

This year marks the 18th anniversary of M Art Center. Eighteen symbolizes adulthood, suggesting maturity and steadiness. Yet, “maturity” can sometimes bring reliance on established paths and hesitation in exploration—for an art space, eighteen years old is still young. Therefore, at this juncture, we have chosen to embark on an “immature” practice: with the joy and solemnity of something newborn, we transform ourselves into a booth, posing a gentle question both inwardly (to our spatial history) and outwardly (to the industry’s display mechanisms).

This exhibition is our offering of an “immature coming-of-age ceremony.” It is both a tribute to the perseverance of the past eighteen years and an expression of our hope for the future—to always remain open, reflective, and experimental in spirit.

We cordially invite you to “Booth M56.” In this unique site we have built for ourselves and for you, let us collectively experience, feel, and engage in this dialogue about art, space, and viewing.