Lawrence Abu Hamdan
The “politics of listening” is the specialist subject of Lawrence ABU HAMDAN (1985, Jordan). The Beirut-based artist and audio investigator creates films, installations, graphic design, sculptures, photography, and performances that explore the intersection between sound and politics. His work received a Nam June Paik Award and Baloise Art Prize, and he is no stranger to Rotterdam: he won the Tiger Award for Short Films at IFFR 2017 for Rubber Coated Steel (2017). His investigations, conducted as part of his PhD research in Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths College London, have furthermore had a real-life impact when used as evidence at the UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and by Amnesty International and Defence for Children International. In 2019, he was one of four recipients of the prestigious Turner Prize.
Filmography
(selection) Language Gulf in the Shouting Valley (2013, short), The All-Hearing (2014, short doc), Double-Take: Leader of the Syrian Revolution Commanding a Charge (2014, short doc), Rubber Coated Steel (2017, short doc), Walled Unwalled (2018, short doc), After SFX (2018, performance), New Acid (2019), M.A.G.N.E.T (2019, short), Once Removed (2019, short), 45th Parallel (2022, short)
More info: Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Wikipedia, Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Lawrence Abu Hamdan op IFFR
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Double-Take: Leader of the Syrian Revolution Commanding a Charge
Lawrence Abu Hamdan | 11' | United Kingdom | International premiere
Two similar paintings filmed in detail, one of the French colonial overlord, the other of a Syrian resistance leader. Tough questions about the coloni -
45th Parallel
Lawrence Abu Hamdan | 15' | United Kingdom | Dutch Premiere
An incisive monologue about the ways violence, terror, and contradiction reveal themselves at borders and checkpoints. -
After SFX
Lawrence Abu Hamdan | -
In this performance, Lawrence Abu Hamdan investigates our auditory memory using sounds, voices and texts from his library of sound effects objects. -
Walled Unwalled
Lawrence Abu Hamdan | 21' | Germany | None
At a Berlin studio, researcher Abu Hamdan recorded stories about court cases that revolved around sounds, heard or experienced through walls. -
Once Removed
Lawrence Abu Hamdan | 29' | Lebanon | World premiere (festival)
Bassel Abi Chahine, a self-described reincarnation of a dead soldier from the Lebanese civil war, recalls past details with remarkable precision. -
Rubber Coated Steel
Lawrence Abu Hamdan | 21' | Germany | World premiere
A tribunal for the sounds of deadly gunfire. The victims’ silence is amplified through the absence of emotion, the sound of ammo and voices. -
The All-Hearing
Lawrence Abu Hamdan | 13' | Egypt | International premiere
An Egyptian ode to loudspeaker libertarianism, Cairo’s omnipresent noise pollution and Sheiks’ determination to have the issue of noise heard.