Seven Stories presents seven projects by Taiwanese-American artist Lee Mingwei. Exploring ideas of trust, intimacy, and self-awareness, Lee creates opportunities for intimate encounters in his work, through artistic iterations of simple everyday activities. By creating open scenarios, Lee places audience participation at the center of his work.

These ideas can be seen in a number of projects presented in the exhibition, such as Sonic Blossom (2013/2018), a participatory installation through which audiences may be chosen to receive a gift of a song; and The Dining Project (1997/2018) which involves an after-hours encounter in the museum whereby a host prepares a private dinner for a single guest.

Also on display is Guernica in Sand (2006/2018), a large-scale installation based on Pablo Picasso’s Guernica (1937). Constructed with a team of volunteers over the course of three weeks, the work reproduces Picasso’s painting in the sand. One day, halfway through the exhibition, visitors are invited to walk on the sand while the artist completes an unfinished section of the sand painting. Around sunset, after the last visitor has walked on the sand, four performers, including Lee, will sweep the painting, and the project is left in this condition until the end of the exhibition.

Lee Mingwei lives and works in Paris and New York. His work has been presented around the world, recent solo exhibitions include Centre Pompidou in Paris, National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. He has also been featured in numerous international biennials including Venice, Lyon, Liverpool, Taipei, and Sydney.