Answer: yes. If you’ve been strolling past the Peninsula Hong Kong recently and happened to look anywhere other than your phone (unlikely, we know), you might have noticed an unexplained coach dangerously dangling off the hotel’s seventh-floor sun terrace.
This isn’t evidence that Hong Kong’s infamous minibus drivers have completely lost the plot (although there’s plenty of that elsewhere), but, in fact, a rather dramatic and ambitious piece of modern art.
As part of a three-year partnership between London’s Royal Academy of Art and the Peninsula, British sculptor Richard Wilson brings us “Hang on a Minute Lads… I’ve got a Great Idea”, an artwork inspired by the final line of the vintage British heist movie “The Italian Job”, of course!
What could possibly make more sense for Hong Kong?
But as with all art, there is a completely logical and incomprehensible explanation.
“Here in the most vertical city in the world it’s about placing an iconic moment and an iconic event on an iconic building,” said Wilson.
So it’s iconic then.
“One has to remember that the coach isn’t just stuck on the edge, it teeters. And it changes people’s relationship to the building.”
He’s right. Our relationship with the Peninsula will never be the same.
You can change yours too until April 8.
The full explanation can be found here (we may be piss takers but we love this really):
