Manufacturing Hich

An abandoned factory. Eighteen documented instances of the Persian word هیچ.

A factory is fundamentally an architectural monument to mass production, material accumulation and human labor. But what happens when the machines stop, the workers leave, and the space is reclaimed by silence?

Wandering through the colossal, decaying halls of an abandoned factory, I discovered a haunting repetition: the Persian word “Hich” (هیچ — meaning “Nothing” or “Nothingness”), written obsessively with a marker across various walls, shelves and hidden corners. The calligraphy eerily echoes the iconic “Hich” sculptures of Parviz Tanavoli, yet here it is stripped of its artistic prestige. It is a raw, anonymous declaration.

This series documents my forensic journey through this industrial graveyard. The juxtaposition of the massive, defunct center of production against the tiny, handcrafted assertion of nothingness creates a profound paradox. Who was the author? A former worker summarizing his years of labor? A trespasser confronting the existential void? The 18 instances of “Hich” I documented serve as a found manifesto. In its final days, this factory did not produce steel or goods; its ultimate and most enduring product was “Nothing.”