I just wrote an art story for Lee Mingwei’s ongoing artwork The Letter Project, where viewers act as participants in the piece, being given the opportunity to write a letter and then leave it either closed or unopened to be read. Similarly, Mingwei sees his performance work Our Labyrinth as a gift to the audience for deep reflection and was inspired by his trip to Myanmar where he visited temples and watched volunteers daily sweep the pathways as a gift to the visitors, keeping the sacred space clean and inviting. The process was physically, spiritually and mentally cleansing, and Mingwei wanted to bring that sense of sacredness and beauty into the museum space. Dancers in Our Labyrinth perform a slow and meditative piece where they use brooms to shape the rice in unchoreographed movements. The dancers have been instructed by Mingwei to “be guided by the rice” and the performance is also inspired by a question posed by Mingwei: Can art be made out of attention itself?

Check out the video of Our Labyrinth being performed at the Tate Gallery in London, and an interview with Mingwei about the artwork.