Contra Diction : Speech Against Itself, 2015

Contra Diction : Speech Against Itself, 2015

In this work Abu Hamdan seeks to explore the ways in which our right to silence can be preserved in today’s All-Hearing and All-Speaking society. In his reappraisal of silence and its politics Abu Hamdan will look into the linguistics of Taqiyya, an old piece of islamic jurisprudence practiced only by esoteric minorities that allows a believing individual to deny his faith or commit otherwise illegal acts while they are at risk of persecution or in a condition of statelessness. By looking into stories of alleged mass conversions of the Druze minority in northern Syria Abu Hamdan indicates how such minor speech acts can help us re-appraise the precision of speaking, the multiple ways of remaining silent and the inherently unfaithful nature of ones voice.

This work was made with the creative production and video direction of Nesrine Khodr and exists both as a live audio essay and most recently as a 2 channel video installation pictured below.