What does it mean to speak up or speak out? What motivates an artist, an individual, or an entire community to express seemingly irrational thoughts or to challenge the status quo?
Voice Against Reason delves into these questions. Working in the intersection of arts, history, politics, and ecology, the project explores the role of language as one of the tools that form our experiences and perception of the world.

Good Machine, Bad Machine (2022) by Meiro Koizumi is a multimedia installation that investigates how language functions as a control mechanism in society. The work shows three actors being hypnotized in an interrogation-like session, under hypnosis. A robotic arm is presented alongside this video installation and it alludes to this question of the boundary between human and machine, and how authority and technology shape our minds and our daily desires as individuals and as a community.

This work challenges us to assign a form to this mysterious mechanism, and for us to contemplate the relations between the human subconscious, our bodies in social spaces, and the role of languages in shaping our actions and experiences. The artist appears to ask us: Does our body manage our mind? Does the physical dictate the mental?

This session will be delivered in English, with a presentation by the artist followed by a discussion session with a moderator.

Meiro Koizumi (b. Japan, 1976). Good Machine Bad Machine (2022). Multi-channel video installation with robot arm sculpture. Duration 35’ 14”; 32’ 03”. Courtesy of the artist, Annet Gelink Gallery (Amsterdam) & MUJIN-TO Production (Tokyo). Installation view of ‘Voice Against Reason' at Museum MACAN, Jakarta, 2023. Image courtesy of Museum MACAN.

Tuesday, 27 February 2024 at 11.00 AM–1.00 PM at Ruang Gagasan Museum MACAN-ERHA

This program is accessible with a valid Museum MACAN ticket.

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The general lecture session will also be available for livestreaming through Museum MACAN's YouTube channel.

For more information about this program, please contact the museum's Education and Public Program Department through WhatsApp at +62 812 8882 3755.

Meiro Koizumi (b. Japan, 1976) is an artist who works in video installation and Virtual Reality (VR) works. He explores themes related to Japanese culture, modern history, social norms, power dynamics, and the complexities of human emotions. In many of his works, he places himself or other participants in uncomfortable or vulnerable situations, challenging the boundaries of public and private behavior.

Recent solo exhibitions include Battlelands at Perez Art Museum Miami, Florida, United States (2018); Dreamscapegoafuck at MUJIN-TO Production, Tokyo, Japan, (2019) and Good Machine Bad Machine at Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2023). Koizumi also had exhibited in many group shows including The 9th Asia Pacific Triennale at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (2018); Proregress, 12th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China (2018); Leaving Echo Chamber, Sharjah Biennale 14, Sharjah, UAE (2018); Aichi Triennale, Aichi, Japan (2019); Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2022) and the 14th Gwangju Biennale, Korea (2023).