Скачать или смотреть Lee Mingwei's Sonic Blossom at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.

The National Portrait Gallery presents the gift of music with Lee Mingwei's Sonic Blossom in the month of April 2018. The Taiwanese-born and American educated Lee is internationally renowned for projects that prompt connections and invite trust, creativity, and self-awareness. Sonic Blossom, which marks the first time that Lee’s work is being presented in Washington, D.C.,  is presented in honor of the Portrait Gallery’s 50th Anniversary, as a gift to visitors of the museum.

In what the gallery describes as "Performance art as portraiture", individual visitors to the museum are randomly approached by a trained opera singer in a custom-designed gown and asked "May I give you the gift of song?" If the gift is accepted, the two will move to the National Portrait Gallery’s Great Hall (on the third floor) where the visitor will receive the transformative gift of one of Franz Schubert’s five lieder (art songs): Du bist die Ruh, An den Mond, Frühlingsglaube, Nacht und Träume, or Auf dem Wasser zu singen. Eleven vocalists were selected primarily from local talent.

The participatory artwork, the 9th performance of the museum’s "IDENTIFY: Performance Art" series, would take place from April 5 to April 29, Thursdays through Sundays (from noon to 4 p.m.) Sonic Blossom received from the Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan), and from the Taiwan Academy, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States. Next, Sonic Blossom head on to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France.

Videography by Jeff Malet