November 5th – December 15th, 2024
Open: Wed.-Fri. 13:00-19:00 / Sat.& Sun. 12:00-18:00
Closed: Mon.& Tue.
Opening reception: Sat. November 9th, 17:00-19:00
* Open every day during Art Week Tokyo. Please note that the gallery will be open from 10:00 to 18:00.

MUJIN-TO Production is pleased to present “Altar,” an exhibition by Meiro Koizumi.

In recent years, Meiro Koizumi has explored the mechanical nature of the human cognitive system through the themes of hypnosis and virtual reality, creating a new vision in which machines and humans merge.

While Koizumi has been focused his expression on video, this exhibition will feature new sculptures that connect the human body with everyday objects, furniture, and machine parts, as well as paintings and prints based on historical photographs documenting hypnosis in the 19th century.

Through the medium of sculpture, Koizumi is attempting to move to the next stage of experimentation, questioning the materiality of the body, which is the essence of the body, and wondering, “Has the human body been converted into data and patterns and objectified in exchange for progress and development throughout history?”

We hope this exhibition will give you a opportunity to think how we can recover the essence of our original raw experience and the rich space of humanity from our bodies, which have been reduced to objects, and feel the sense of foreboding for the future that Koizumi presents.

This is Koizumi’s first solo exhibition at MUJIN-TO Production in five years, revealing his new works that will lead to overseas projects for the next year.

[Artist Statement]
Prometheus, the ancient Greek god at the origin of modern technology, was crucified and subjected to eternal torture by giving fire (technology) to humans. For this heroic self-sacrifice behind human progress, humans had to return the favor. Perhaps the very thing that humans have sacrificed throughout history in return is our bodies themselves.
War violently reduces our bodies to objects and images, brainwashing and propaganda turn our bodies into obedient machines. Racism transforms the bodies of others into indifferent objects, and AI trivializes our bodies into data and patterns. We may have continued to offer something important to our own lives throughout history to God in return for convenience and progress. Rational modernity may be another name for this grand ritual. War may be part of this sacrifice. Abstract art may be the religious art that embellishes this ritual.
The challenge against these great forces is to reclaim our raw nature, which cannot be reduced to commodities, objects, images, or patterns. They are destined to be excluded from progress because they have no definite form. Art, however, is the act of giving form to the formless.
I believe that my great challenge is how to recover the rich space of life in the body, which has been returned to objects.

October 2024
Meiro Koizumi