Cover French artist Emmanuelle Moureaux at ‘100 Colours No.54 – Flow’ at Central Yards’ temporary footbridge (Photo: courtesy of Central Yards)
French artist Emmanuelle Moureaux at ‘100 Colours No.54 – Flow’ at Central Yards’ temporary footbridge (Photo: courtesy of Central Yards)
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Renowned French artist Emmanuelle Moureaux makes her Hong Kong debut with a 100-colour immersive installation that turns Central Yards’ pedestrian bridge into a dynamic exploration of energy and the future
The journey between the IFC Mall and the Central Ferry Piers is a path trodden by thousands of commuters daily. Yet, this everyday transit space has been transformed into a “dynamic time tunnel”. Suspended above the entrance of this temporary pedestrian bridge at Central Yards is 100 Colours No.54 – Flow, a constellation of approximately 4,000 meticulously hand-crafted numerals that envelop pedestrians in a vivid spectrum of light and motion.
Marking her first major intervention in the city, Emmanuelle Moureaux has brought her signature chromatic system to the heart of the Central harbourfront. The installation features layered, floating numerals arranged vertically along a timeline from 2027 to 2032, weaving the words “Central Yards” into a three-dimensional environment. For Moureaux, the work is an extension of the district’s own creative pulse. “My artwork [features] 100 colours, so it aligns naturally with the creativity of Central Yards, which is a very colourful project too,” she says.
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The choice of numerals is far from arbitrary. Each line represents a sequence of years, tracing a passage through time. “Rather than marking fixed points, time becomes something in motion—where moments emerge, overlap, and fade,” Moureaux explains. By using her iconic 100-colour palette, she seeks to capture a “continuous flow of energy” rather than a static state.
Moureaux, a French-born, Tokyo-based artist, has been refining her 100 Colours series since 2013. Her philosophy is rooted in the belief that colour is a foundational element capable of architecting space itself. “I realised that colour was not something applied to surfaces, but something that could define space itself,” she says. By utilising colour as a three-dimensional element, she divides and constructs environments that shift the viewer's perception of their surroundings.
In Flow, the numerals act as moments in time, inviting the public to pause amid their commute. Moureaux expresses a poetic hope for the installation: “I hope that people can [look at] one colour every day and imagine a bright future”. As pedestrians descend the escalators, the artist intends for them to feel the “flow and energy of colour, almost as if the colours are falling over you”.
Above ‘100 Colours No.54 – Flow’ at Central Yards’ temporary footbridge (Photo: courtesy of Central Yards)
‘100 Colours No.54 – Flow’ at Central Yards’ temporary footbridge (Photo: courtesy of Central Yards)
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The title of the work, Flow, was born from Moureaux’s observation of Hong Kong’s unique urban geometry. She describes the city as a place where “horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines intersect, creating an energy that intensifies as different flows converge”. In her vision, the vertical lines represent the skyscrapers, the horizontal lines the movement of the masses, and the diagonal lines the energy flowing from Kowloon towards Central. Her work aims to express this specific “intersection of lines and energies”.
Beyond the aesthetic, Moureaux views colour as a vehicle for body-wide sensation. “I want people not only to see colour, but to feel it with their whole body,” she asserts. She believes that “colour is emotion” and that individuals respond to it intuitively, not just with their eyes but with their emotions and bodies.
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Above ‘100 Colours No.54 – Flow’ at Central Yards’ temporary footbridge (Photo: courtesy of Central Yards)
‘100 Colours No.54 – Flow’ at Central Yards’ temporary footbridge (Photo: courtesy of Central Yards)
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Despite her use of such a vibrant, structured system, Moureaux’s ultimate goal is grounded in reality. “I am not interested in creating new worlds, but in revealing the one we already inhabit,” she explains. She says that while the human eye can distinguish millions of colours, most remain unnoticed in the hum of daily life. Through Flow, she has created an environment that expands our perception, “allowing us to become aware of what we already see but rarely notice”.
As a symbol of Central Yards’ Phase 1 completion in 2027 and Phase 2 in 2032, the installation serves as a vibrant prelude to a new chapter for the harbourfront. For Moureaux, colour remains a universal language: “Colour is universal and eternal, borderless and infinite”. By creating spaces where colour is experienced with the entire body, she invites the people of Hong Kong to shift their perception of the world, one hue at a time.
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
