فير زملر غاليري Sfeir-Semler Gallery

Lawrence Abu Hamdan

Lawrence Abu Hamdan (b. 1985, Amman, Jordan) is a Lebanese-British independent investigator or Private Ear. His investigations focus on sound and have been used as evidence at the UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, as advocacy for organizations such as Amnesty International and Defence for Children International and presentations at the UN security council.
Abu Hamdan received his PhD in 2017 from Goldsmiths College University of London and in 2021 completed a professorship at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz where he developed his research airpressure.info. Past fellowships have been held at the University of Chicago, in 2017-18 he was a guest of the DAAD artist in Berlin program and from 2015-17 a fellow at the Vera List Centre for Art and Politics at the New School in New York.
Abu Hamdan was exhibited at Munchmuseet, MoMA New York, MUAC Mexico, the 12th Berlin Biennale, the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, the 58th Venice Biennale, the 11th Gwanju Biennale, the 13th and 14th Sharjah Biennial, Witte De With Rotterdam, the Tate Modern, Chisenhale Gallery, Hammer Museum L.A, Hamburger Banhnof, and the Portikus Frankfurt. His works are in the collections of MoMA, New York; Guggenheim, New York; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Kunsthaus Zurich; and Tate Modern, London. Abu Hamdan’s work has been awarded the 2022 Toronto Biennial Audience Award, the 2019 Edvard Munch Art Award, the 2016 Nam June Paik Award for new media and in 2017 his film Rubber Coated Steel won the Tiger short film award at the Rotterdam International Film festival. For the 2019 Turner Prize Abu Hamdan, together with nominated artists Helen Cammock, Oscar Murillo and Tai Shani, formed a temporary collective in order to be jointly granted the award.

Earshot, 2016, HD Video, sound, loudspeakers, C-Prints on kodak metallic paper mounted onto rebonded foam, Video: 21', Installation: variable dimensions, C-Prints: 125 x 50 cx 2 cm each
1/6Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Earshot - Live ammunition, 2016, c-type print on kodak metallic paper mounted onto rebounded foam, 125 × 50 × 2 cm
Earwitness Inventory, 2018-ongoing, Installation, variable dimensions
2/6Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Earwitness Inventory, 2018-ongoing, installation, variable dimensions. Installation view, Manifesta 14, Prishtina, Kosovo, 2022. Photo: Manifesta 14 Prishtina / Majlinda Hoxha
The Witness-Machine Complex, 2021, 7 steel stands, 7 video projections, 7 audio channels, 14 light bulbs, installation: various dimensions; stands: 136,5 x 35 x 35 cm each
3/6Lawrence Abu Hamdan, The Witness-Machine Complex, 2021, 7 steel stands, 7 video projections, 7 audio channels, 14 light bulbs, installation: various dimensions; stands: 136.5 × 35 × 35 cm, each
Air Conditioning, 2022, prints, frames, 15 plates, 90 x 365 cm each
4/6Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Air Conditioning, 2022, 15 dibond mounted prints (3mm thick), frames, 90 × 365 cm, each. Installation view, The Sonic Image, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE, 2022. Photo: Danko Stjepanovic
5/6Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Loud Speakers (remix) (Sheikh Sayed), 2024, video, colour, sound, 10 min (still)
Planned Obsolescence, 2025, 10 tvs, still images, dimensions variable
6/6Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Planned Obsolescence, 2025, 10 tvs, still images, dimensions variable

Selected Press

Gallery Exhibitions

Exhibitions Beyond

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2026

  • Overdub, mor charpentier, Paris, France

2025

  • Zifzafa, Munchmuseet, Oslo, Norway

  • Someone Chewing, Sfeir-Semler Gallery Karantina, Beirut, Lebanon

2024

  • Zifzafa, Barakat Contemporary, Seoul, South Korea

  • Air Conditioning, MUDAM: Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg

2023

  • Aux Frontières de L'audible, FRAC, Besançon, France

  • Cross-Border Crimes, MUAC – UNAM Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico

  • Walled Unwalled and Other Monologues, MoMA: Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

  • 45th Parallel, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

2022

  • Air Pressure (A diary of the sky), The Future Fields Commission in Time-Based Media, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy

  • Cross border crimes & the witness-machine complex, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg, Germany

  • 45th Parallel, Mercer Union, Toronto Biennial of Art, Toronto, Canada

  • The Sonic Image, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE

  • 45th Parallel, Spike Island, Bristol, UK

2021

  • Dirty Evidence, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden

  • The Witness-Machine Complex, Kunstverein Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany

  • For the Otherwise Unaccounted, Simon Fraser University, SFU Galleries, Audain Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2020

  • Green Coconuts and Other Inadmissible Evidence, Vienna Secession, Vienna, Austria

  • Sala10: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Walled Unwalled, MUAC Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, online exhibition

  • Artist's Rooms: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE                                    

  • This whole time there were no landmines, Towner Eastbourne, Eastbourne, UK

2019

  • Earwitness Theatre, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Missouri, USA

  • The Voice Before the Law, Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany

  • Earwitness Theatre, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia

  • Natq, Sfeir-Semler Gallery Karantina, Beirut, Lebanon

  • Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands

  • Earwitness Theatre, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia

2018

  • Walled Unwalled, daadgalerie, Berlin, Germany

  • Walled Unwalled, conceived for the Tanks, Tate Modern, Bankside, London, UK

  • Earwitness Theatre, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK

  • Lawrence Abu Hamndan, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK

  • Hammer Projects: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA

2016

  • Contra-Diction: Speech Against Itself, Le Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

  • Earshot, Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany

  • Contra-diction: Speech Against Itself, Maureen Paley, London, UK

2015

  • Taqiyya, Kunsthalle St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland

  • The All-Hearing, Laveronica, Arte Contemporanea, Sicily, Italy

2014

  • Tape Echo, part of 'Positions', Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

2013

  • Tape Echo, Beirut in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

  • Model court: Resolution 978 HD, Gasworks, London, UK

2012

  • Aural Contract: The Whole Truth, Casco Art Institute, Utrecht, Netherlands

  • Aural Contract: The Freedom of Speech Itself, The Showroom, London, UK

Selected Group Exhibitions

2026

  • Unruly Water, Inaugural edition of Rubaiya Qatar, Doha, Qatar (forthcoming)

  • Canicula, Fondazione In Between Art Film, Complesso dell’Ospedaletto, Venice, Italy (forthcoming)

  • Rewire, The Hague, Netherlands (forthcoming)

  • Ctrl + Shift + Del, Improper Walls, Vienna, Austria

  • The Cyclops Had Only One Eye, but It Was the Right One, Le 19, Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain, Montbéliard, France

  • Melted for Love, Sonic Acts Biennial, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2025

  • Dream City Festival, Tunis, Tunisia

  • Near East, Far West, 6th Kyiv Biennial, Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

  • The Shade, Sfeir-Semler Gallery Karantina, Beirut, Lebanon

  • Of Anarchy in Music: More Journeys in Sound, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung City, Taiwan

  • Bounding Histories. Whispering Tales, Art Encounters Biennial 2025, Timișoara, Romania

  • Finding My Blue Sky, Lisson Gallery, London, UK

  • Freeing the Voices, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria

  • La Collectionneuse, La Società delle Api, Monaco

2024

  • Public Matter, Inaugural Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, Abu Dhabi, UAE

  • Among the Invisible Joins – Works from the Enea Righi Collection, MUSEION, Bolzano, Italy

  • The Ecologies of Peace II, TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Madrid, Spain

  • And the Invader’s Fear of Memories, Wei-Ling Galleries, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

  • Normopathies, Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern, Mallorca, Spain

  • Take a Breath, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

  • Survival in the 21st Century, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany

  • Fait divers: une hypothèse en 26 lettres, 5 équations et aucune réponse, Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne – MAC/Val, Vitry-sur-Seine, France

  • And the Invader’s Fear of Memories, Wei-Ling Galleries, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China

  • The Ecologies of Peace, Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Cordoba, Spain

2023

  • Signals, MoMA: Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

  • The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, Germany

  • In the Heart of Another Country: The Diasporic Imagination Rises, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE

  • So it appears, Institute for Contemporary Art, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA

  • In The Heart Of Another Country, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

  • Shift: Music, Meaning, Context, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, USA

2022

  • Toronto Biennial of Art, City of Toronto, Canada

  • Still Present!, 12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany

  • Manifesta 14, Prishtina, Kosovo

  • 45th Parallel, Spike Island, Bristol UK

  • Polyphone, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire Paul Eluard, Saint-Denis, France

  • Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, 26th Edition, Toronto, Canada

  • Information (Today), Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway

  • The World We Live In, Art and the Urban Environment, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Norwich, UK

2021

  • Though it’s dark, still I sing, 34th Bienal de São Paulo 2021, São Paulo, Brazil

  • INFORMATION (Today), Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland

  • Personae. Masks Against Barbarism, Es Baluard, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Spain

  • Non-/Human Assemblages, Sea Art Festival 2021, Busan Biennale, Yeonje-Gu, Busan, Korea

  • Sonic Liberation Front, Venice Architecture Biennale 2021, Venice, Italy

  • Busan Bienale, Yeonje-Gu, Busan, Korea

  • The Poetry of Translation, Kunst Meran Merano Arte, Merano, Italy

  • VIDEONALE.scope #8, Filmforum NRW & Filmclub 813, Cologne, Germany

  • The Principle of Hope, Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China

  • Age of You, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE

  • Force Times Distance: 12th Edition Sonsbeek, Sonsbeek International Sculpture Exhibition, Arnhem, Netherlands

  • Hummings, KØS Museum of Art in Public Spaces, Køge, Denmark

  • INFORMATION (Today), Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland

  • Komunikazio-Inkomunikazio, Tabakalera, International Centre for Contemporary Culture, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain

  • Polyphone, Kunstsammlung Gera, Gera, Germany

  • Luttes et Utopies 1971–2021: 50 ans d’art engagés, Musée de Millau et des Grands Causses, Millau, France

2020

  • Readings From Below, Times Art Center Berlin, Berlin, Germany

  • Agency of Undertones, Trafó Gallery, Budapest, Hungary

  • Art in the Age of Anxiety, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE

  • We Never Sleep, The Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany

  • Enter the Void, Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany

  • NIRIN, The 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

  • QALQALAH قلقلة: plus d’une langue, CRAC: Centre régional d'art contemporain, Pyrénées-Méditerranée, Sète, France

  • The Future of Silence: When your tongue vanishes, Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin-si, Korea

  • Voice Over, The Bonnefanten, Maastricht, The Netherlands

  • SOUND OFF: Silence + Resistance, LACE: Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, USA

  • Collection as Poem in the Age of Ephemerality, X Museum, Beijing, China

  • De leur temps (6), Collection Lambert, Avignon, France

  • Meditations in an Emergency, UCCA Beijing, Beijing, China

  • 1 Million Roses for Angela Davis, Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden, Germany

  • Overt: Militarization as Ideology, University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto, Canada

  • Paranoia TV, Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria

2019

  • Tell me about yesterday tomorrow, NS-Dokumentationszentrum München, Munich, Germany

  • Turner Prize Exhibition, Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK

  • May You Live In Interesting Times, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy

  • Making New Time, Sharjah Biennale 14, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE

  • Crack Up - Crack Down, Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

  • Age of You, Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Toronto, Canada

  • Art Parcours, Basel, Switzerland

  • The Voice Before the Law, Baloise Group Collection Display Exhibition, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany

  • Survivre ne suffit pas, FRAC Franche Comté, Besançon, France

  • Ancient History of the Distant Future, PAFA: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, USA

  • Sound Unheard, Goethe Institut, Paris, France

  • Babel, Iselp, Brussels, Belgium

  • International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

  • Rights of Future Generations, Sharjah Architecture Triennale, Sharjah, UAE

2018

  • Eavesdropping, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia

  • Public Art Munich 2018, Munich, Germany

  • Of Other Spaces, 2018 Abraaj Group Art Prize Exhibition, Art Dubai, Dubai, UAE

  • 74 million million million tons, curated by Ruba Katrib and Lawrence Abu Hamdan, SculptureCenter, New York, USA

  • BLIND SPOT, LE CAP, Centre d’arts plastiques de Saint-Fons, Daint-Fons, France

  • He cannot speak for himself [Can´t Speak for Itself], La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain

  • Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement 2018: The Sound of Screens Imploding, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva, Switzerland

2017

  • From Ear to Ear to Eye: Sounds and Stories from Across the Arab World, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK

  • Accentisms, Taxispalais, Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck Austria

  • Parades for FIAC, Paris, France

  • The Image of War, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden

  • Negotiating the Future: 2017 Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan

  • Where do I end and you begin – On Secularity, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art 2017, Gothenburg, Sweden

  • Stealing from the West, Academy of the Arts of the World, Cologne, Germany

  • Manipulate the World, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

  • Forensic Architecture – towards an investigative aesthetic, MACBA, Barcelona, Spain

  • Heart of the Tin Man, M Woods, Beijing, China

  • Blind Date, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon

  • Tamawuj, Sharjah Biennial 13, Sharjah, UAE

  • Contour Biennale 8 Polyphonic Worlds: Justice as Medium, Kunstcentrum NONA, Mechelen, Belgium

  • Strange Attractor, Ballroom Marfa, Texas, USA

  • We Are Everywhere, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, USA

  • Anarchéologie, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

  • Full Scale – Art’s Use in the Real World, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK

  • No to the Invasion: Breakdowns and Side Effects, The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York, USA

2016

  • Nam June Paik award exhibition, Museum Folkwang Essen, Essen, Germany

  • If All Relationships Were to Reach Equilibrium, Then This Building Would Dissolve, MIMA: Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough, UK

  • The Eighth Climate (What Does Art Do?), Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju, Korea

  • 9th Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK

  • Imperfect Chronology, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK

  • Each fighting its own little battle in happy ignorance, Pump House, London, UK

2015

  • British Art Show 8, Hayward Gallery, London, UK

  • Political Populism, Kunsthalle Wien, Austria

  • Surround Audience, New Museum Triennial, New York, USA

  • Accented, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAE

  • On Water, Rosemary and Mercury, Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon

  • Sources Go Dark, Center For Contemporary Art Futura, Prague, Czech Republic

  • Our Land/Alien Territory, 6th Moscow Biennial, Moscow, Russia

2014

  • Public Matter, Inaugural Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, Abu Dhabi, UAE

  • Contaro, Al Hondiga, Bilbao, Spain

  • Social Factory, 10th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China

  • Forms of Distancing: Representative Politics and the Politics of Representations, Sterchicher, Herbst Festival, Austria

  • Don’t You Know Who I Am? Art After Identify Politics, M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium

  • Transfigurations: Curatorial and Artistic Research in an Age of Migrations, MACBA, Barcelona, Spain

  • Forensis, Hause Kulturen, Berlin, Germany

  • Ten Thousand Wiles and Tricks, Meeting Point 7, Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon

  • Don’t Embarrass the Bureau, Lunds Konsthall, Lund, Sweden

  • Word. Sound. Power, KHOJ International Artists’ Association, New Delhi, India

2013

  • Tensta Museum: Reports from New Sweden, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden

  • Schizophonia, Cac la Synagogue de Delme, Delme France

  • 4 days April 2013, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK

  • Things Behinds the Sun, Non, Istanbul, Turkey

  • Lexicon VHDG, Leeuwarden, Netherlands

  • Word. Sound. Power, Tate Modern, London, UK

  • The String and the Mirror Lisa Cooley Gallery, New York, USA

  • Alternativa 2013: till tomorrow! Ideologies of city planning and the tactics of dwelling, Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk, Poland

  • The Field is to the Sky, only backwards, ISCP, New York, USA

  • Glitch: Unser Schreibzeug arbeitet mit an unseren Gedanken, Kunstraum Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

2012

  • Fait divers: une hypothèse en 26 lettres, 5 équations et aucune réponse, Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne – MAC/Val, France

  • Desire Lines, Espai Cultural de Caja Madrid, Barcelona, Spain

  • Modern Monsters / Death and Life of Fiction, Taipei Biennial, Taipei, Taiwan

  • How Much Fascism?, Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerp, Belgium

  • Soundworks, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK

  • Alternativa 2012: Materiality, Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk, Poland

2011

  • Survival Kit, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia

2010

  • Homeworks 5: A Forum on Cultural Practices, Aural Contract Artist Talk, Beirut, Lebanon

2009

  • A Time to Make Ten Shoes, Santarcangelo 39: Festival Internazionale Del Teatro In Piazza, Santarcangelo Italy

2007

  • Lawrence Abu Hamdan & Will Saunders, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, UK

Performances and Screenings

2025

  • 45th Parallel, The Three-Legged Cat, 18th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey

  • A Thousand White Plastic Chairs, Sfeir-Semler Karantina, Beirut, Lebanon

  • Zifzafa, Wonder Cabinet, Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine

  • Roaming like desert animals that understand it's enough to find a few leaves or drops of blood to slip past another day, ICA LA: Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA

2024

  • The Diary of a Sky, Wavelengths 1: Eye & Ear Control, 49th Toronto International Film, Festival, Toronto, Canada

  • Once Removed; 45th Parallel; Walled Unwalled; Rubber Coated Steel; The Diary of a Sky, CineMAS, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE

  • Air Pressure, Theatro Circo (Sala Principal), The Art and Technology Biennial INDEX, Braga, Portugal

  • Live Audio Essays: Air Pressure; Natq, Audio; After SFX; Glasgow International Festival, Glasgow, UK

  • Perhaps Here, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE

  • Zifzafa, Alserkal Arts Foundation, Dubai, UAE

2023

  • Earshot (guided listening session), Fonoteca Nacional de México, Mexico City, Mexico

  • 45th Parallel (screening); Live Audio Essays (book launch), Maureen Paley, Close-Up Cinema, London, UK

  • Air Pressure, Hangar, Barcelona, Spain

  • Natq, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain

  • Natq, MUAC, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico

  • 45th Parallel, CPH:DOX, Copenhagen, Denmark

  • 45th Parallel, International Film Festival, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

  • 45th Parallel, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, France

  • After SFX, Natq, and Air Pressure, shown in Walled Unwalled and Other Monologues, MoMA: Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

  • Natq, Spike Island, Bristol, UK

  • Natq, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India

2022

  • Daght Jawi: A Live Audio-Visual Essay, L’Art Rue, Planetarium Cité des Sciences, Tunis, Tunisia

  • Daght Jawi: A Live Audio-Visual Essay, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE

  • 45th Parallel, Currents Program 2: Fault Lines, 60th New York Film Festival, Film at Lincoln Center, New York, USA

  • 45th Parallel, Shorts Programme: Some Say The Devil Is Dead, British Film Institute London Film Festival, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK

  • 45th Parallel, Lo schermo dell’arte 2022, Florence, Italy

  • 45th Parallel, Cinema Vérité, Iran International Documentary Film Festival, Iran

2021

  • Air Pressure: A Diary of the Sky, Daght Jawi: A Live Audio-Visual Essay, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Germany

  • Sonic Liberation Front, 17th Venice Architecture Biennale 2021, Venice, Italy

  • Natq, Punto de Vista 2021, Pamplona, Spain

  • Culture Summit Abu Dhabi 2021, online screening

  • VIDEONALE.scope #8, Filmforum NRW & Filmclub 813, Cologne, Germany

  • Diplopia, Tallinn Photomonth ’21’s Artists’ Film Programme, Tallinn, Estonia

  • Le Printemps de Septembre, Les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse, France

2020

  • IMAGE. SOUND. TEXT., RenBen: Wildcard, Renaissance TV, Renaissance Society, online exhibition

  • Saydnaya, alserkal.online, online screening

  • Transmissions, Episode 4, Lawrence Abu Hamdan: ‘The Gravedigger and the Prince’, Projections, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

  • Sala10, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Walled Unwalled, UNAM – MUAC, online screening

2019

  • Walled Unwalled, Museum Of Contemporary Art Chicago, USA

  • Walled Unwalled, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Funkhaus studios, Rotterdam, Netherlands

  • After SFX, International Film Festival Rotterdam, WORM, Rotterdam, Netherlands

  • Natq (lecture-performance), Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Sharjah, UAE

  • Alternative Cinema Series, Colgate University, New York, USA

  • Rubber Coated Steel, Filmforum at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

2018

  • Walled Unwalled, 36th Torino Film Festival, Torino, Italy

  • Bird Watching, Durub al Tawata by Tarek Abou Al Fatouh, The Auditorium, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE

  • After SFX, The Tanks, Tate Modern, Bankside, London, UK

  • Walled Unwalled, Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto, Canada

  • Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, Bucharest, Romania

  • Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto, Canada

2017

  • Rubber Coated Steel, Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest, Romania

  • Rubber Coated Steel, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK

  • ICA, London, UK

  • Rubber Coated Steel, Asia Focus: Performing Arts at MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), Seoul, South Korea

  • Sound Bleed, Portikus XXX summer screening program, Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany

  • Rubber Coated Steel, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

  • Listening Space: Bird watching, documenta 14, Athens Conservatoire, Athens

  • Rubber Coated Steel, New York Film Festival, New York, USA

2016

  • Rubber Coated Steel, Union Docs, New York, USA

2015

  • Double Take, 45th International film festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

  • Isambard Kingston Brunel, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA

  • Contra-diction: Speech Against Itself, The New Museum, New York, USA

  • Double Take at the Past 100 Years, part 1: WDW Review Offline, Kunstinstituut Melly (formerly known as Witte de With), Rotterdam, Netherlands

2014

  • Contra-diction: Speech Against Itself, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK

  • The All-Hearing, 44th International film festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

  • Received Pronunciations, Radio Web MACBA, Barcelona, Spain

  • Contra-diction: Speech Against Itself, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK

2013

  • Aural Contract Audio Archive, Tate Modern, London, UK

  • Public Sound 3, The Speaking Subject, de Player, Rotterdam, Netherlands

  • Aural Contract, Meeting Point 7, M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium

  • Isambard Kingston Brunel, Iaspis, Stockholm, Sweden

  • Mountain Language, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK

  • Record, Reframe, Resist, V&A, London, UK

2012

  • Aural Contract, The Voice Symposium, The Science Museum’s Dana Centre, London, UK

  • Artists’ film club: sound and vision, ICA, London, UK

  • The Pessoptimist Marathon with Marwa Arsanios, The Jerusalem Show, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Palestine & Beirut, Lebanon

2011

  • Audio Infrastructures, Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk, Poland

  • Model Court: An Ecology of the Courtroom, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK

2010

  • Forensic Listening, 98 Weeks Project Space, Beirut, Lebanon

2007

  • Light Night: Leeds Urban Performance, Leeds, UK

Awards

2023

  • Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film, Glasgow, Scotland

2022

  • Audience Prize of the Toronto Biennial, Toronto, Canada

  • Prix George Award for the Best Documentary Form, Winterthur, Switzerland

  • Future Fields Commission in Time-Based Media, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy

  • Jury Special Prize, Iran International Documentary Film Festival, Short Length International Competition, Teheran, Iran

2020

  • The Jean Vigo Award for Best Director, Punto de Vista, Pamplona, Spain

  • German Federal Foreign Office Dialogue Award, 33rd European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, Germany

2019

  • Turner Prize, co-winner, Margate, UK

  • Edvard Munch Art Award, Oslo, Norway

2018

  • The Abraaj Group Art Prize, Dubai, UAE

  • 20th Baloise Art Prize, Basel, London

2017

  • Dialog Award 30th European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, Germany

  • Tiger Award for Short Films, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

2016

  • Nam June Paik Award for New Media, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Commissions

2022

  • Air Pressure, commissioned by the Fondazione Sandretto, Turin, Italy

  • 45th Parallel, commissioned by Toronto Biennial of Art; Mercer Union, Toronto; Spike Island, Bristol; and Western Front, Vancouver.

2021

  • The Witness-Machine Complex, commissioned by Kunstverein Nürnberg, Germany

2019

  • Once Removed, commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE

2017

  • Saydnaya (the missing 19db), commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE

2016

  • The Hummingbird Clock , commissioned by the Liverpool Biennial, UK

  • Rubber Coated Steel, commissioned by Portikus, Frakfurt, Germany

2015

  • A Convention of Tiny Movements, commissioned by the Armory Show, New York, USA

2014

  • Contra-diction : Speech Against Itself, commissioned by the Goldsmiths College & the Royal College of Arts, London, UK

  • The All Hearing , commissioned by Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

  • Double Take , commissioned by M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium

2013

  • Tape Echo , commissioned by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, Beirut in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt ; and the British Council, London, UK

  • Language Gulf in the Shouting Valley, commissioned by the Young Arab Theatre Fund, Brussels ; M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium ; and Goldsmiths College, London, UK

  • Resolution 978 , commissioned by Gasworks, London, UK

2012

  • The Whole Truth & Conflicted Phonemes , commissioned by Casco, Utrecht, The Netherlands

  • The Freedom of Speech Itself , ommissioned by The Showroom, London, UK

2010

  • Aural Contract , commissioned by the Showroom, London, UK

2008

  • Marches, Artangel, London, UK

Selected Publications

2023

  • Abu Hamdan, Lawrence; Roy, Virginia; Weizman, Eyal, "Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Cross-Border Crimes," Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

  • Ed. Hoff, James; Dubinsky, Allison, "Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Live Audio Essays," Primary Information, NY, USA

2022

  • "Dirty Evidence", Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden, Lenz Press, Milan, Italy

2020

  • "Lawrence Abu Hamdan – Earwitness Inventory," Revolver Publishing, Berlin, Germany

2016

  • "[inaudible] A Politics of Listening in 4 Acts," Sternberg Press, Portikus Frankfurt and Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen, Germany

Public Collections

Education

2016

  • Goldsmiths College, University of London, PhD, The Centre for Research Architecture, UK

2010

  • Goldsmiths College, University of London, MA, The Centre for Research Architecture, UK

2007

  • Middlesex University, BA, Sonic Arts, London, UK