Sacrifice is a performance using virtual reality technology to create a unique experience of complete absorption in another person’s suffering. The performance unfolds through the first-person perspective of a young Iraqi man, who as a child experienced the war in his village.

The journey begins from his ordinary life and then leads into a confession of his inner turmoil. Meiro Koizumi’s work examines a range of complex issues: power dynamics on scales both familiar and national, the tension between staged and authentic emotion, and the conflict between duty and desire. In Sacrifice, he touches on the ideas of intersubjectivity, collective memories, or the “otherness” within oneself, and questions the perception of tragedy, the limits of empathy and the influence of an artistic medium. 

The event is presented by Abu Dhabi Art Durub Al Tawaya.

Image courtesy: Meiro Koizumi - production still from "Sacrifice", VR video installation/performance, 2018