As one walks down the escalator, one is transported into a small Lilliputian in the heart of Hong Kong. In a city where skyscrapers rise almost overnight, the “small MUJI” miniature art exhibition offers a contrast with the small-scale representations of local life.
The “small MUJI” exhibition, organised by the renowned Japanese retail brand MUJI, represents a collaborative world tour featuring the innovative miniature photographer and mitate artist, Tatsuya Tanaka. This exhibition features 16 sets of miniature works in total. Tanaka uses creativity and meticulous craftsmanship to transform everyday MUJI products into playful and storytelling miniature artworks.
Selected as the final destination for this tour, Hong Kong presents an exciting conclusion of the exhibition’s journey, which has previously toured cities such as Helsinki, Ginza, Osaka, Singapore, Beijing, and New York. This world tour exhibition not only showcases new creations mixing with local elements but also marks a significant first in Hong Kong, as it is the creation and presentation of miniature works as a large-scale installation art piece during the tour.
The exhibition debuts at MUJI Windsor House on October 3, 2025, inviting all the love for Hong Kong to explore the collaboration between urban landscape and creativity.
Among 16 sets of miniature, where MUJI file folders become escalators (File Box Escalator) and eyeshadow palettes transform into ice rinks (Eyes-cream), the centrepiece is undoubtedly the two Hong Kong-exclusive installations. Specifically, as the first time in the tour’s history that miniature works have been presented as room-sized pieces.
The first piece, “Little Big City,” is what you see first walk into the exhibition, the iconic urban landscape of Hong Kong. Tanaka has used collections of discarded MUJI shampoo, lotion, and cosmetic bottles to recreate the iconic skyline view from Victoria Peak. By adjusting the scale of the skyscrapers to be smaller in relation to the figure on the hill, a sense of depth and perspective is created. The translucent white and beige containers cleverly mimic the clustered towers, while tiny figurines on a green felt “mountain” emphasise the contrast of size that combines to form this art piece.
The artwork invites interaction, challenging viewers to walk around it. From one side, it’s the view from the Peak; from the other, the overview across Victoria Harbour towards Hong Kong Island. “You find yourself playing a game, trying to guess which bottle is the IFC and which is the ICC,” said Chloe Chow, a university student. “It makes you look at a skyline you’ve seen a thousand times in a completely new way.”
As you walk into the exhibition, right next to “Little Big City”, is the second large-scale installation “, The Drawers of Life.” Tanaka uses hundreds of MUJI’s signature acrylic drawers to construct a dizzyingly dense streetscape. The artist has recreated the chaotic beauty of Hong Kong’s architecture, with tiny signs jutting out over the streets, air conditioners and iron railings affixed to the uneven facades of buildings, and the double-decker buses and trams weaving, all protruding from the stacked compartments through this vertical city.
MUJI products to recreate the vibrant and eclectic streetscape unique to Hong Kong. Imagine the drawers of each shelf as buildings, and the products resembling air conditioners as windows into individual lives. For many visitors, the piece is a recognisable portrait of their home, Hong Kong. “It’s the air conditioners that got me, it’s such a specific, real detail you see every day but never think about as being ‘Hong Kong’,” shared Samuel Lee, a 28-year-old graphic designer. “Seeing it all miniaturised makes you appreciate the Hong Kong uniqueness, the layers of our city.”
The exhibition has drawn not only the casually curious but also long-time admirers of Tanaka’s work. Kenji Lo, a 32-year-old architect and self-proclaimed “superfan” who has followed Tanaka’s daily “MINIATURE CALENDAR” for years, found the Hong Kong pieces to be a perfect combination of the artist’s style and Hong Kong local context.
“I’ve seen his work online for a decade, where he turns a simple USB plug into a surfboard,” Lo explained, gazing at the installations. “But to see him apply that same playful logic to something as complex as the entire Hong Kong landscape is incredible. He hasn’t just placed tiny people in a MUJI box; he’s captured the feeling of our compressed, vibrant city. It’s his most ambitious work to date, and it’s for us, Hong Kong.”
This connection is intentional. Tanaka himself noted in his “MINIATURE CALENDAR “that his inspiration came from a previous visit, where he was fascinated by the city’s neon signage, a feature he knowingly incorporated as a tribute to a fading aesthetic.
The “small MUJI” exhibition, open until November 15, this art exhibition is more than a display of craftsmanship. As the global tour’s final bow, it represents a significant cultural moment where a globally recognised artist uses the minimalist language of a Japanese brand to compose a macro-scale respect to Hong Kong’s streets, and its people, one miniature detail at a time.
small MUJI Exhibition – Enjoying Everyday Items –
Date: October 3 to November 30, 2025
Time: 11:00 – 21:30, free admission
Venue: MUJI Windsor House
Address: B/F, Windsor House, 311 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay
