Events

Sonic Blossom is a project Lee Mingwei came up with while taking care of his sick mother. Inspired by the fact they both found solace in listening to Franz Schubert' s Lieder, the project takes the form of "gift-giving" of the Lieder to members of the audience.

To apply for the lieder singers (performers):
* Application closed

Picasso's Guernica depicts the bombing of Basque civilians in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. Halfway through the exhibition, on Lee Mingwei's interpretation of the painting in sand Guernica in Sand, members of the audience will be invited to walk, thus transforming the work - a reminder of the impermanence characteristic of our world.

Venue: Mori Art Museum (53F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower)

• From 12:00 to 16:30, participants are invited to walk on the work bare-footed, one by one.
• Please come to the gallery space in front of Guernica in Sand at any time within the above time frame. However, please be informed that you may be asked to wait.
• Performance by the artist and his assistants will start from 16:30.
• Guernica in Sand is a sand painting made of extremely fine sand, covering rather vast area of the gallery floor.

* Please note that time of the performance has been changed.
* To take part in the performance, please come directly to the exhibition space.
* Please be informed it will be first-come, first-served basis. And, you may not be able to participate in case of too many applicants.
* To view and/or to join the performance, an exhibition ticket, valid on the day, is required.

Lee Mingwei, who will be visiting Japan in conjunction with the exhibition, will talk about his art practice to date, spanning over 20 years.
Why don't you join in on this opportunity to hear him talk about his projects with the themes of "connections" and "relations" as well as the background behind each project, in his own words?

Speaker: Lee Mingwei

Venue: Mori Art Museum (53F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower)
Capacity: 80 (booking required)
Admission: Free (exhibition ticket required)
Booking: * Booked Out

Works by Lee Mingwei encourage us to think about how artists engage with society. At this symposium, we will welcome specialists of sociology, psychology, and community design, and together attempt to examine this issue, with the impermanence of artworks, a commonality in Lee Mingwei's wide-ranging practice, as a starting point.

Venue: Academyhills (49F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower)
Capacity: 150 (booking required)
Admission: General ¥1,000 MAMC Member free
Organizer: Mori Art Museum
Cooperation: Academyhills
Booking: * Booked Out

Profile of Speakers:

Pieranna Cavalchini (Tom & Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)

Since coming to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Cavalchini has organized exhibitions and/or special projects including Carla Fernandez (2014), Sophie Calle (2013), Lee Mingwei (2012-2014), The Raqs Media Collective (2012), Shinoda Taro (2009), Tse Su-Mei (2009), Joseph Kosuth (2003), Laura Owens (2001), among others. Prior to joining the the museum in 2001, She served as a Special Advisor to Incontri Internazionali d'Arte in Rome (1988-1998). She was the Italian Coordinator at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, for the exhibitions The Knot Arte Povera at P.S.1 (1985).

Harvey Molotch (Professor of Sociology and Metropolitan Studies, New York University)

Besides his writing on art installations and architecture, Molotch researches city growth and product design and development. Throughout his works, he strives to connect micro level (social-psychological) phenomena with macro level analyses (political power and economic dynamics).
His most recent book is Against Security: How We Go Wrong at Airports, Subways, and other Sites of Ambiguous Danger (Princeton University Press). Prior books include Urban Fortunes (with John Logan), which was named distinguished contribution to the discipline of sociology and Where Stuff Comes From, winner of the US Komarovsky Award. He recently edited (with Laura Noren), Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing (New York University Press).
Before coming to New York University, Molotch was Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics and Chair of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara; he has also been visiting professor at Bocconi University in Milan, Northwestern (USA), Essex (UK), Lund (Sweden), and Stony Brook (USA).

Glenn Wharton (Clinical Associate Professor in Museum Studies, New York University)

Glenn Wharton is a Clinical Associate Professor in Museum Studies at New York University where he teaches and writes about contemporary art in museums. From 2007-2013, he served as Media Conservator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he established the time-based media conservation program for video, performance, and software-based collections. In 2006 he founded INCCA-NA, the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art in North America. He served as its first executive director until 2010. Wharton received his Ph.D. in Conservation from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and his M.A. in Conservation from the Cooperstown Graduate Program in New York. His most recent book is titled The Painted King: Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawaii, in which he tells the story of a community-based, participatory conservation project.

The curator of the exhibition will discuss Lee Mingwei and his relations in parallel with, and interpreting artworks exhibited as "reference works" by such artists as D.T. Suzuki, John Cage, Allan Kaprow, Rikrit Tiravanija, and Ozawa Tsuyoshi.

Speaker: Kataoka Mami (Curator of the exhibition / Chief Curator, Mori Art Museum)

Venue: Mori Art Museum (53F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower)
Capacity: 80 (booking required)
Admission: Free (exhibition ticket required)
Booking: * Booked Out

With Sasaki Shizuka, a specialist on Buddhist philosophy, we will examine the works by Lee Mingwei from Eastern thoughts, or Zen thought in particular.

Venue: Mori Art Museum (53F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower)
Capacity: 80 (booking required)
Admission: ¥1,500 (an extra exhibition ticket will be given), MAMC/Passport Member free
Booking: * Booked Out

* The exhibitions will be closed to the public, thus only those who booked for this particular program will be able to view the exhibitions during 18:00-19:00 (before the commencement of the program) and 20:30-21:30 (after the completion of the program). With the extra ticket given, participants to the program can return to the exhibition at a later date.

Talks by museum staff conducted in a gallery tour format.

A tour designed for children to experience the Lee Mingwei's artworks together and to discuss them.

For: Primary school children
Capacity: 15 (booking required, attendees chosen by lottery)
Admission: Free (exhibition ticket required)

Family tours are aimed at children and their guardians, and you can choose either of the following two types of the tours:
Baby Stroller Tours, or Parent-Child Dialogue Tours

For: Pre-school children (ages 0 to 6) and their guardians
Capacity: 10 guardian-child pairs (each, booking required, attendees chosen by lottery)
Admission: Free (exhibition ticket required)

[1] Baby Stroller Tours

A tour for guardians with small children in strollers. No need to feel embarrassed about bringing a stroller into the exhibition.

[2] Parent-Child Dialogue Tours

Parents join children in the process of acquiring language skills on an art tour.
Looking at art through the eyes of our children, you can enjoy art while conversing with your children (Recommended for ages 3 and up).

A tour in which the visually impaired can explore the exhibition through dialogue with museum staff.

For: Those with some form of visual impairment
Capacity: 6 (booking required)
Admission: Free (exhibition ticket required)
Booking: * Booked Out

A tour for enjoying the exhibition using the Japanese sign language and words. Open to those who don't use sign language, too.

For: General public
Capacity: 10 (booking required)
Admission: Free (exhibition ticket required)
Booking: * Booked Out

A tour for enjoying the exhibition using the Japanese sign language and words. Open to those who don't use sign language, too.

For: General public
Capacity: 10 (booking required)
Admission: Free (exhibition ticket required)
Booking: * Booked Out