Art Sonje Center will present Meiro Koizumi: The Fire, an Archive, on view from October 27 to December 27, 2026, marking the Japanese artist’s first institutional solo exhibition in Korea. Bringing together works spanning charcoal, sculpture, three-channel video, and virtual reality, the presentation in Space 2 on the museum’s third floor examines the afterlives of war and nationalism in postwar Japan, focusing on how histories of violence are remembered, carried, and transmitted across generations. In this exhibition, memory is not treated as a fixed record, but as something that is carried through bodies and voices and transformed as it moves between people, materials, and technologies.

About the Artist
Meiro Koizumi (b.1976)
Meiro Koizumi lives and works in Yokohama. He studied at International Christian University, Tokyo; Chelsea College of Art and Design, London; and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Working across video, performance, and virtual reality, Koizumi’s practice explores hidden historical memories, state nationalism, and the psychological conditioning that shapes how histories are remembered and understood. In 2021, Koizumi was one of six artists jointly awarded the Artes Mundi 9 Prize, the UK’s largest contemporary art prize, for The Angels of Testimony. His work has been presented internationally through projects and exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, Burgos; Artspace, Sydney; and Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam. He has also participated in major international group exhibitions and biennials, including the Liverpool Biennial, Gwangju Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Artist Talk
To mark the opening of the exhibition, an artist talk with Meiro Koizumi will take place on Tuesday October 27, 2026. Focusing on the works presented in this exhibition, the artist will share insights into his production process, background, and the central themes traversing his artistic practice.