'Tokyo is a big and crowded city just like New York. To avoid being absorbed by this overflow of people, everybody is wearing "mask" and "armour" to protect their personal space within their mind. This dynamism is most visible on the train. I tried to shatter this mask and armour, and tried to expose the humane emotion hidden inside.'
- Meiro Koizumi

Theatre Dreams of a Beautiful Afternoon is a video installation that starts with portraying passengers in a relaxed mood after a busy day in compounds of two metro trains. Gradually the tension grows, manipulating the situation from ordinary to painful. Focus shifts to the moment when the situation gets out of control, becomes embarrassing, breaks social rules or goes beyond one's emotional restraint.

For the creation of this work, Meiro Koizumi asked an actor to cry on the train in the heart of Tokyo. Koizumi notes: When he was just sobbing, people didn’t respond to him at all. So I asked him to perform again and again. At the eighth take, when I asked him to just scream at the top of his voice, we finally managed to shatter people’s mask. During the production, the earthquake struck, and nuclear plants exploded in north-eastern Japan. It was really a time in which everybody in Tokyo felt anxiety from the fear and uncertainty of the condition at the nuclear plant. We all wished it were a dream.

Courtesy of the artist and Annet Gelink Gallery
2010-2014 - 2 channel HD video installation - 10’30”

Image credit: Meiro Koizumi - Theatre Dreams of A Beautiful Afternoon, 10min30sec, 2010-2011

Meiro Koizumi
°1976, Gunma, Japan

Meiro Koizumi investigates the boundaries between the private and the public, a domain of specific importance to his native Japanese culture. His videos are often based on performances and constructed scenarios. Often starting harmoniously he gradually heightens the tension manipulating the situation from humorous to painful. His practice includes drawings and collages alongside performance and film. His work has been shown in prominent group shows, most recently in Aichi Triennale (2019), Sharjah Biennial (2019), EYE Film Museum, Amsterdam (2019) and Shanghai Biennale (2018). Recent solo exhibitions were held at a.o. Minneapolis Institute of Fine Art, Minneapolis (2019), at Perez Art Museum, Miami, (2019), and at Frans Hals Museum | De Hallen, Haarlem (2016). Meiro Koizumi is represented by Annet Gelink Gallery. He lives and works in Yokohama, Japan.