VENUES

Executive Director Sueo Mizuma opened Mizuma Art Gallery in Tokyo in 1994. Since then, the gallery has continuously presented artists from Japan and, increasingly, the surrounding regions, whose works possess distinctive sensibilities unaffected by fleeting stylistic trends.
Matching the rapid expansion of Asia’s contemporary art market, Mizuma Art Gallery opened an additional space in Singapore’s Gillman Barracks in 2012. Another gallery space was opened in New York in 2018.

The exhibition “While I am Dead – A Prelude to Life” will visualize Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s decade in isolation from the art world. The main installation comprises of over 200 monochromatic photographs covering the gallery’s wall. Images of the artist’s daily encounters in Houston, where he lives, will be exhibited alongside those featuring his travels to Tokyo before the pandemic as well as his documentation of theatrical performances and sporting events.

Visitors are encouraged to choose one image from the exhibition and replace it with their own photograph of a scene from everyday life. The visitor can take home their selected Nguyen-Hatsushiba image, and their own photo will then be hung on the wall as part of the work.

Nguyen-Hatsushiba hopes that these acts of choosing and trading will lead to a chronicle, recording all personal interactions made between him and the visitors. Although interaction with the work is limited to one trade per visit, guests are welcome to visit the gallery multiple times.