To mark the opening of Meiro Koizumi: The Fire, an Archive, Art Sonje Center will host an artist talk with Meiro Koizumi on 27 October.

Based in Yokohama, Japan, Koizumi works across video, performance, sculpture, virtual reality (VR), and other media to explore how political, cultural, and technological structures of power shape individuals. His practice has consistently engaged with nationalism, Japan’s wartime history, and the relationship between individual experience and collective memory.

The artist talk will explore Koizumi’s practice through The Angels of Testimony (2019), for which he received the Artes Mundi 9 Prize, a major UK contemporary art award, in 2021, alongside new sculptures and drawings presented for the first time in this exhibition. The talk will offer an opportunity to hear directly from the artist about his creative process, the background to these works, and the central concerns that have informed his practice.

* The talk will be conducted in English, with Korean interpretation provided.

About the Artist
Meiro Koizumi (b.1976)
Meiro Koizumi lives and works in Yokohama, Japan. He studied at International Christian University, Tokyo, and Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, from 2005 to 2006. Working across video, performance, drawing, sculpture, virtual reality, and other media, Koizumi examines the ways individuals are shaped by political, cultural, and technological systems of power. His practice has consistently engaged with nationalism, Japan’s wartime history, and the relationship between individual experience and collective memory. 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, and Shanghai Biennale, as well as exhibitions at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.