“sonic monument of genocide and rebirth” Sound Performance directed and performed by Ilavenil Vasuky Jayapalan（NAGAVER）

Artist In Residence Program 2025 Exchange : Office for Contemporary Art Norway／Showcase
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Sound Performance directed and performed by Ilavenil Vasuky Jayapalan（NAGAVER）
“sonic monument of genocide and rebirth”
“இனப்படுகொலை மற்றும் மறுபிறப்பின் ஒலி நினைவுச்சின்னம்”
『虐殺と再生の音響的記念碑』

Kyoto Art Center has been running an Artist In Residence Exchange Program with the Office for Contemporary Art Norway since 2022.
In this year, we invite an artist Ilavenil Vasuky Jayapalan and present his sound performance “sonic monument of genocide and rebirth”.

Ilavenil Vasuky Jayapalan is multidisciplinary artist and musician of Eelam Tamil. Drawing from his background as a diaspora Tamil, he creates and presents works exploring themes of freedom, truth, faith and desire.

During this residency, he has been making a Noh mask for two months since October under the guidance of Noh mask maker Keiko Udaka. Through the carving of Noh mask, he aims to engage with the spiritual essence of Noh theatre inherent in the technique and explore connections between ritual and performance, mythology and materiality, presence and absence, for his future creations.

In this showcase, we focus on Jayapalan’s music activities within his diverse works and present the sound performance “sonic monument of genocide and rebirth”. This work is a sound performance dedicated as a memorial to the Eelam Tamil people who fell victim to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

The acoustic spatiality, created alongside psychedelic sounds and utilised the characteristics of masks and shadows, will interweave memories of destruction and rebirth, and sublimate into prayer finally.
Following performances in Norway and London, he now takes on the challenge of presenting it in Kyoto this autumn.

【Artist Statement】
Given the circumstance that any monuments or even gesture that remember the victims of the ongoing genocide against Eelam Tamils have since 2009 been illegal in both Sri Lanka, occupied Eelam, online and in many countries of our diaspora, siting glorfication of a terrorist organisation as the reason. Deliberately blurring the line between civilian and revolutionary. Many Eelam Tamils have however conducted memorials despite ongoing threats. 
This becomes the memorials i travel around and build. “இனப்படுகொலை மற்றும் மறுபிறப்பின் ஒலி நினைவுச்சின்னம்” / “sonic monument of genocide and rebirth” is a sound-based performance where I work with the idea of acoustic spatiality. Structures that emerge from sound itself. Thinkng of sound as material capable of holding, bending, or dissolving space. Each vibration becomes and accumulates into a sort of architecture, one that surrounds us, moves through us, and reshapes how we inhabit it. Playing with light and shadow i wish to explore the space these elements create, and how, just like a Noh mask will carry the traces of its maker, so will its shadows. 
※Eelam : Tamil for the traditional homeland of Eelam Tamils in the northern and eastern regions of the island, colonized successively by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British. Formerly known as Ceylon, the island gained independence from Britain in 1948 and became the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972, making Tamils a minority in their own homeland and subjecting them to systemic oppression and genocide.
Ilavenil Vasuky Jayapalan（NAGAVER）


▼Flyer

▼Press Release
https://www.kac.or.jp/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/プレスリリース.pdf

▼Trailer
https://youtu.be/luv8OZBWtqU?si=SapTaQVTIkdLkWus

【Notice during the Performance】Added on Nov. 28.
・There will be very loud sounds
・There will be intense flashing lights
・Entering and leaving during the performance is allowed
・Recording will take place