Meiro Koizumi

In 2018 Meiro Koizumi collaborated with Theater Commons Tokyo to create a performance together with twenty young adults. This resulted in a video installation entitled We Mourn The Dead Of The Future. In the performance Koizumi addressed themes of heroism and self-sacrifice that seem to reoccur throughout his career. Set in the freezing rain at the site of a former US army base, he asked the youngsters to conduct a ritual in mourning ‘the dead of the future’. Are people willing to sacrifice their lives for a nation, a state or for other ideals? By forcing the youths to face this proposition and the surrounding onlookers, emanating sanctity and pain, Koizumi confronts his viewers with the same ultimate question; Would you be able to sacrifice your life for someone or something? At first, this question may seem somewhat exaggerated and unrealistic. If you don’t feel the urgency in your everyday life, it might feel unanswerable. Nevertheless, Koizumi confronted the young people with this question and asked them to announce their answers publicly. Because of this, their staged statements start to feel more and more like facts as the video unfolds. In times like these, it is not unimaginable that young people will be confronted with a similar question in the future. Koizumi empowers these youngsters by giving them the opportunity to create their own ritual. In this work, they are the ones in charge.