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
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