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N0 NAME  2015 - in progress
Pencel, MUJI notebook 

The Armenian genocide counts more than one million five hundred thousand bodies exterminated, never documented. A hand reappropriates numeration to celebrate by countdown, one by one, each of their lives.

217/02/ 2025
1500000 - 1382436


N0 NAME - Installation
October 27-November 17, 2024
Kameyama Triennale 2024
Kameyama, Mie prefecture, Japan

In this special installation for the Kameyama Triennial, I wanted to foster an open exchange between the collective memories of two nations: Japan and Armenia. The installation consists of two interconnected spaces, each reflecting this dialogue.

In the first space, I presented seven notebooks from my ongoing project N0 NAME. Since 2015, I have used handwritten numeration to commemorate the undocumented lives of the one and a half million victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, counting down their lives in a quiet act of remembrance. The space resonated with the scratching sound of my pencil moving across paper, layered with counting voices alternating between Japanese and Armenian. Numbers, as a universal language, also evoke the memory of Japanese victims of the atomic bomb and their collective trauma, while contemporary portraits of the Kameyama community in the second space silently converse with those of the Armenian diaspora, symbolizing resilience, and vitality in shared historical experiences.



Room 1
Seven notebooks, size B5
Sound: The scratching sound of the pencil layered with counting voices of Toshiko Mori, Toshie Kuraoka, and myself.



Room 2
Portraits: 24 C-print on baryta paper, 25 x 25 cm, nylon wire, stones.

N0 NAME - Sound performance
October 27, 2024 6:30 PM – 7:15 PM
Kameyama City Cultural Hall
Kameyama, Mie prefecture, Japan

The sound performance “N0 NAME” unfolded as a multi-layered dialogue, where the scratching of my pencil echoed the solemn count of one and a half million Armenian lives lost. This rhythmic act of remembrance intertwined with the improvisational melodies of Eisuke Oooka, who added his sound across multiple instruments, and experimental sound effect. The voices of Toshiko Mori and Lilly Okamoto layered the piece with recited poetry of Roupen Sevag and Kurihara Sadako.


With the support and contributions of:
Takakuni Inoue  井上隆邦
 Mori Toshiko  森 敏子
Toshie Kuraoka  倉岡としえ
Pierre-François Letué
Eisuke Oooka  大岡英介
Natsuki Takauji  高氏 奈津樹
Xiaolei Liu  刘筱镭
Gerard Agopyan
Benjamin Girard



As the performance drew to a close, the audience was invited to receive a small paper roll creted by Pierre Francois Letué, a tactile fragment of the experience. One side bore the numbers written during the performance; the other side carried poetry of Roupen Sevag and Kurihara Sadako’s words.

Ահա մենք կուգանք, ահեղակորով
Մեր Յույսին կրանիթ գարշապարներով
Խօսեցընելու անանո՜ ւն կորած
    Ռուբէն Սեւակ

Here we are, we arrive, imposing  
With the marks of our granite hope,  
To give voice to the nameless disappeared.
       Roupen Sevag



Paper, ink, 5 x 100 cm, 2024
Kameyama, Mie prefecture, Japan

瓦礫の中で、一輪の野生の花が
小さな白い花を咲かせた。
父、母、兄弟、親戚の骨に満ちた
焼けた土壌から、
すべての生き物が焼き尽くされた
静寂の廃墟の中で：
私たちに生きることを教えてくれた
小さな命。
広島、その日から受け継がれ—
破壊の中に咲く一輪の花。
   栗原貞子

In the rubble, a single wildflower
sent out a small white blossom.
From the burned soil filled with the bones
of fathers, mothers, brothers, relatives,
From the now-silent ruins
where every living-thing burned to death:
a small life that taught us to live.
Hiroshima, carrying on from that day—
a single flower blooming in the midst of destruction.
    Kurihara Sadako