Meiro Kozumi
The Angels of Testimony
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De Pont museum
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ADDRESS:
Wilhelminapark 1
Tilburg
Guilt, shame and deeply-rooted taboos about Japan’s role in the Second World War are recurring themes in Koizumi’s oeuvre. Through The Angels of Testimony, he explores the relationship between the guilt felt by an individual and the collective or national guilt that can emerge from war.
The video installation The Angels of Testimony centres on a 99-year-old war veteran named Hajime Kondo. Kondo fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and his detailed accounts of the gruesome war crimes he committed during the conflict were recorded in a book.
Alongside the interview, Koizumi has arranged two large screens showing footage of a group of young performers. These actors recite Kondo’s shocking words in the enclosed space of a sound studio and out in the street, in public. Their voices – by turns whispering, questioning and screaming – convey resignation, rage and fear.