HONG KONG, November 5, 2014 — Artist Lee Mingwei has a series of projects experimenting the trust, intimacy and self-awareness among people in different countries. All projects are rather innovative and special in a way that we rarely see other artists do it before. His projects involve lots of interactions between strangers and throughout the projects, reflect issues that are related to our daily lives. For instance, Lee explored issues such as trustiness, faith, materialism, relationships and willingness to share.

Lee mentioned one project in particular, The Mending Project, in which he took up a position in the museum and repaired worn clothing for strangers. He explained that the concept came from 9/11 back in 2001, when his partner almost died and they lost about 400 friends from the tragic attack. Since then, Lee started to repair broken objects around him which he's supposed to mend a long time ago. It became a way to recover himself from the sadness. This habit lasted for 10 years before he was finally comfortable enough to bring up this idea and start The Mending Project.

“It could be a very simple thing, to repair a piece of clothing. Or it could be about [the] repair of relationships between countries and between people,” explained Lee, re: the meaning behind the project — for different individuals, there will be different levels of understanding.

Video: Watch the complete program (45 min., 19 sec.)