Mori Art Museum is pleased to present "Lee Mingwei and His Relations: The Art of Participation - Seeing, Conversing, Gift-Giving, Writing, Dining and Getting Connected to the World," a solo exhibition of Taiwan-born, New York-residing artist Lee Mingwei, from Saturday, September 20, 2014 to Sunday, January 4, 2015. This will mark his first large-scale survey exhibition to date.
In the realm of contemporary art, since the late 1990s, artworks and art practices based on audience participation have risen to prominence and expanded globally as "relational aesthetics" and "participatory art." In this genre, Lee Mingwei has worked on numerous art projects that involve the participation of an audience in some form or another, and taken part in a number of international exhibitions. This exhibition will therefore represent a mid-career retrospective of the art practice of Lee Mingwei, enabling us to comprehensively experience his art.
This exhibition will present 15 major works and projects (including a new work) by Lee Mingwei alongside works and quotations by various other artists, religious leaders and thinkers including Hakuin, D.T. Suzuki, John Cage, Yves Klein, Lee Ufan, Allan Kaprow, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Ozawa Tsuyoshi and Tanaka Koki that will help in understanding their historical and cultural context, making the viewing experience more multidimensional and intellectually fulfilling.
As hinted at by Lee Mingwei himself when he says, "At the opening stage the show will be only around 40 percent complete," during the exhibition the various projects will take on a life of their own as a result of the interaction of members of the audience, changing daily and becoming even more complex and multilayered. How are we connected to the people and the environment around us and, beyond these, to the world and history? We hope this exhibition will provide an opportunity for visitors to think again about relations and connections.
The Mending Project 2009
Installation view: Lombard-Freid Projects, New York, 2009
Collection: Rudy Tseng Photo: Anita Kan