LEE MINGWEI

Sonic Blossom M+ 27 August–29 September 2024 Hong Kong

Press Release

M+ will present Sonic Blossom, a celebrated performative installation by LEE Mingwei (b. 1964), in the Focus Gallery. Sonic Blossom is a live performance which features trained opera singers approaching a visitor in the museum galleries to offer the gift of song. It is inspired by the artist’s experience of caring for his mother during her recovery from surgery, when they both took solace in listening to Franz Schubert’s Lieder. With five chosen Lieder and a group of Hong Kong-based classical singers, Sonic Blossom transforms these songs into an extraordinary offering that elicits spontaneous moments of joy, sadness, and connection.

Taiwan-born LEE Mingwei is an internationally recognised artist with a pioneering practice that foregrounds experience and artistic participation. Educated in Taiwan and the United States, LEE is part of a generation of artists who began to incorporate participatory elements into their art in the 1990s. LEE’s work, however, has always taken a different approach, transcending cultural and political boundaries to cut to the core of the human experience and reveal our desire for connectedness. Sonic Blossom follows the success of the interactive installation The Letter Writing Project (1998), which was on view in our collection-based exhibition Individuals, Networks, Expressions from November 2021 to November 2023.

About the Artist

The work of artist Lee Mingwei (李明維) is informed by the legacy of relational aesthetics. He is best known for his participatory installations based around everyday scenarios. Sometimes these installations involve direct and intimate contact with the artist himself in activities such as eating together, walking together or talking together. In such work he fosters a sense of trust, intimacy and self-awareness between the viewer and the gallery attendant (or artist), transforming the interaction between gallery-goer and art into a human moment between two people.

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Also Exhibiting at M+

All Exhibitions

Janet Cardiff: The Forty Part Motet M+ From 15 August 2026 Hong Kong

Design Ah! Experience the Wonder of Everyday Design M+ 27 June 2026–10 January 2027 Hong Kong

Heri Dono: Fermentation of the Mind M+ 30 May–25 October 2026 Hong Kong

Wael Shawky: I Am Hymns of the New Temples M+ 30 May–25 October 2026 Hong Kong

About the Gallery

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Address

West Kowloon Cultural District
38 Museum Drive
Kowloon
Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Opening Hours

Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 6pm
Fridays, 10am – 10pm
Closed Mondays

M contemporary art institution in Hong Kong

M+

West Kowloon Cultural District, 38 Museum Drive, Kowloon, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

+852 2200 0217
http://www.mplus.org.hk

Opening hours

Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 6pm
Fridays, 10am – 10pm
Closed Mondays

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