Projects 80: Lee Mingwei, The Tourist
September 25–November 24, 2003

The Tourist, a project by Taiwan-born artist Lee Mingwei in partnership with members of the public, explores the idea of tourism as a critical form of cosmopolitanism. In an enterprise that is less a matter of discovery than of negotiating identity with reference to otherness, willing participants act as tour guides and lead the artist around New York neighborhoods, following an itinerary of their own design. For this project, both "tourist" and "guide" document their experience via digital snapshots, and their dialogue is recorded on tape. Side-by-side projections of photographic stills, conversation fragments, and collected keepsakes from each tour are incorporated into a continuously changing installation at MoMA QNS.

Organized by Roxana Marcoci, Assistant Curator, Department of Photography.

The exhibition is made possible by Yageo Foundation, Taiwan.

Additional funding is provided by National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan.

Pictured above:
Lee Mingwei. The Tourist. 2003. Digital print. Courtesy the artist and Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, New York. Photo: Lee Mingwei