Style Lab：Louver/Shutter/Blinds/Hundred Leaves

Louver/Shutter/Blinds/Hundred Leaves

Lee Ming Chen / Style Lab

In this work, theater prodigy Lee Ming Chen strips the maverick Koolhaas architecture of its illusion machinery to rekindle the magic of theater with its most fundamental elements and configurations. What would happen when the theater—theatron, meaning “viewing place” in its Greek origin— is stripped of stage lights? What would we see?
 

Known for his precision in orchestrating sensations aroused by concrete materials, the Taiwanese director takes the structure of louver, horizontal slats angled to let in light and air but keep out rain and sunshine, as his departure point this time. The compound in the title refers to the different names of such a construction structure (“hundred leaves” is the literal translation of its Chinese name, “pai yeh”). Inspired by the porous quality of louver, its ambiguous relations to sight, as well as the multiple associations evoked by its different names, the piece creates a theatrical experience that foregrounds neglected sensory perceptions and the operation of the human gaze.
 

Collaborating with found object visual artist Luo Jr-shin, this spectacle of the mundane probes into those sensory impacts that have seeped into our bodies without us realizing.

*Louver/Shutter/Blinds/Hundred Leaves is commissioned by 2023 Taipei Arts Festival

 

 

Lee Ming-Chen, Taiwan

Lee Ming-Chen graduated from the Department of Theatre Arts, National Taipei University of the Arts, majoring in directing.

Working in theater production, performance, graphic art.Since 2009, he has created and published performances under the name of Style Lab. At the same time, he has been invited to cooperate, co-create, and consult as a personal director. The fields of his cooperation work are diversified,including contemporary theater, performing arts, visual arts, sound and audiovisual arts, etc.His works focus on the cognitive texts and magical performances/narratives of the experience scene, as well as their relationship with people and the interaction of the performance. He actively tries creative approaches in various fields mostly through collective improvisation. He draws materials from life situations and daily life, focusing on the ambiguity and its synesthesia, and using theater art as a medium and creative method. Recently he has more performing arts regarding language produced by art and contemporary techniques, as well as the contemporary Taiwanese identity perception and mixed culture/reality.

 

StyleLab

StyleLab, founded by Lee MingChen, a graduate of the Department of Theatre Arts at Taipei National University of the Arts, organizes its personnel and team structure based on various performance themes and production conditions.  Lee Ming Chen serves as the artistic director and primary creator of StyleLab. Starting from collective creation through self-directed performances, the artistic focus is on extracting artistic materials from the experiences of daily life and the embodiment of the body and voice. Through contemporary dialogue and theater as a medium for reflection or interaction, StyleLab aims to present theater performances that are more intimately related to the audience, creating a theatrical art within the context of Taiwan. StyleLab's works have been nominated and selected for the Taishin Arts Award multiple times and are regarded as "contemporary art within theater."