Theaster Gates is known for his interdisciplinary practice that merges elements Min | Mon of architecture, space theory, performance and sculpture. His work explores
diverse cultures and traditions, combining elements of African American arts with philosophy and crafts. Min I Mon is an installation that includes a sake bar,
a DJ booth and a film projection. It embodies Gates’s interest in the rituals,
ceremonies and art forms of Japan with a particular focus on Japanese ceramics.
Min I Mon invites people to gather and share. Featuring Gates’s own collection
of music records, it actively produces an ongoing experiment in sonic aesthetics,
incorporating ideas of communal experience that blurs the line between art and life.
Min I Mon, which translates into 民 Min: “people”, and 門 Mon: “gate”, intimately
connects the realms of Japanese popular arts with the energy and passion of Black
music and contemporary American culture. Bringing together the raw materiality,
characteristic of Gates’s vocabulary, with performance, it is a space of fusion where
new forms of creativity can develop.