Ilavenil Vasuky Jayapalan's Sonic Monument for Tamil Genocide Victims

Ilavenil Vasuky Jayapalan, an Eelam Tamil artist based in Norway, presented 'sonic monument of genocide and rebirth' at Kyoto Art Center's Multi-purpose Hall on November 29, 2025. The sound performance commemorates Tamil victims of Sri Lanka's civil war massacres. A screen separated audience from performer, with intense red lighting, smoke, and incense. A shadow of the artist at a turntable was projected, surrounded by psychedelic patterns. The piece began with a slow Tamil love song evoking diaspora longing, then escalated with noise, flickering red light, and drum-set rhythms mimicking explosions and gunfire, before concluding with human singing. No specific images or words directly referenced the victims, and performers' faces remained hidden—a strategy to evade oppression, as commemorations of Tamil genocide victims have been suppressed since 2009. The abstract shadow, featureless and black, allowed audience projection, representing both the ritual presider and nameless victims. The removal of concrete imagery evoked sacredness, drawing on Naga serpent deity myths of destruction and rebirth. Ilavenil, who studied Noh mask-making during his Kyoto residency, incorporated Noh's slow, intense movements and spirit-guiding themes into the performance. The work suggests that commemorating victims requires intense communication with the dead, not detached observation.