Nothing Will Remain Other than the Thorn Lodged in the Throat of this World is a charged performance by Haig Aivazian and Noor Abed, composed from sound, text, and movement. Across an arc of guttural sounds, gasps, coughs, hums, and hisses, the artists work through the anatomy of voice – noses, mouths, larynxes, tracheae, and lungs – letting each organ introduce its own emotional and textual register.

Developed through an extended exchange that began in 2024 – and continues to this day – the performance draws on months of shared reflections, quotidian anecdotes, readings, poems, recordings of songs and recitations. The performance makes these gatherings public, as an homage to the active labour of selecting, remembering, re-enacting, restructuring, reassessing, and reassembling of the elements from the correspondence. It grapples with a moment in which the constant hum of genocidal violence feels inescapably present, shaping both artists’ trajectories. The result is a charged, intimate sonic encounter where breath becomes testimony and the body becomes a site of memory, resistance, and resonance.

This programme is part of the Biennial Exhibition at Arti et Amicitiae, where Noor Abed’s film installation A Night We Held Between is on view. Please note that the performance itself takes place at If I Can’t Dance, and tickets grant entry only to this event, not to the exhibition.