Lawrence Abu Hamdan

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Lawrence Abu Hamdan (* 1985 in Amman ) is a British - Lebanese artist.

Life

Lawrence Abu Hamdan was born in the Jordanian capital Amman, but grew up predominantly in the English city of York (he is sometimes referred to as a Lebanese or Jordanian artist). His father is Lebanese and his family is a member of the Druze ; his mother was from Yorkshire . According to its own statements, Abu Hamdan feels both “British” and “very Arab”.

Abu Hamdan claims to have previously toured as a musician and was a supporter of the DIY music scene in Leeds . He studied at Middlesex University in London , which he left in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sonic Arts . 2010, he was from the Center for Research Architecture of Goldsmiths College (University of London) of the Master of Arts awarded in 2016 by the same Department of PhD .

From 2015 to 2017, Abu Hamdan was a Fellow at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School in New York City . In 2017/18 he took part in the DAAD's Berlin artist program. He is currently a Fellow of the University of Chicago .

Lawrence Abu Hamdan is married with one daughter. He lives in Beirut with his Lebanese wife and child . As one reason for moving to Lebanon, he cited the arbitrariness of the authorities on the part of the British Home Office , where he tried for 13 months to apply for a passport for his daughter.

plant

Abu Hamdan describes itself as an independent "Audio investigators" or "sound Detective" ( English Private Ear ), whose training as a musician it for work on forensic qualifying Audio investigation. He sees himself in a hybrid “function between technology specialist and artist”. Abu Hamdan develops and adapts his works - visual and radiophonic works of art and installations - for different locations, including galleries, museums and for legal and legal work. Many of his forensic investigations were carried out in collaboration with the independent art and research agency Forensic Architecture , which is based at Goldsmiths College, where Abu Hamdan studied. With the help of audio software, he can visualize specific frequencies of a certain sound.

“My work deals [...] with truths that manifest themselves in inseparable elements of the environment, in which every sound is repeated through the analysis. That is, I examine acoustic evidence both in itself and as part of the means by which it is politically perceived. I rely on different disciplines: on forensic analysis, on critical discourse, on law, theology and philosophy. A hybrid form of employment that helps develop alternative ways in which to hear crime. It allows forms of argumentation that adhere to the conventions of forensic truth production in different ways and / or rethink them. "

- Lawrence Abu Hamdan

In 2019, Abu Hamdan was nominated for the renowned Turner Prize for his solo exhibition Earwitness Theater at the Chisenhale Gallery in London, the video installation Walled Unwalled and the performance After SFX at the Tate Modern . He used interviews that he conducted with former inmates of the Syrian military prison Saidnaya as the basis for the projects . These were created as part of an audio study for Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture. With the help of sound effects, Abu Hamdan helped the six survivors to remember the background noise of the prison - when leaving the cell, the inmates were always blindfolded, which meant they had no visual orientation. This enabled him to depict the building's unknown architecture and understand what was going on in Saidnaya.

Abu Hamdan was a secret favorite for the Turner Prize. All the more surprising was the announcement by the jury that it would for the first time award the prize equally to all four nominated artists. Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock , Oscar Murillo and Tai Shani had decided on this plan when they met for the first time at Turner Contemporary and asked the jury to jointly identify them as a "heterogeneous artist duo with a lot of immigrant backgrounds", "that emphasize the bond and the community" wanted to. The jury finally complied and the prize money of £ 40,000 was divided equally between the four artists. Abu Hamdan stated that 2019 was a "specific" event as all artists were on a similar social and political path. "This time there seemed to be more cohesion around a political approach than an aesthetic practice," said Abu Hamdan. At the award ceremony, Helen Cammock made a jointly prepared, decidedly political statement: “The Turner Prize is awarded to British artists or to artists who live in Great Britain. This year - as has so often happened in the past - the price is likely to expand what is defined as British, ”said Cammock. "We find this significant at a time that is marked by a strengthening of the right and a renewal of fascism in a conservative, hostile environment - which makes us with our friends and families in Great Britain increasingly unwelcome again". Cammock also referred to the upcoming general election , which could change this.

Abu Hamdan is currently working on the subject of reincarnation , which also plays a role in the Druze religion. He filmed an interview with a 31-year-old Druze who believes he is the reincarnation of a 17-year-old boy who was killed in the Lebanese civil war in 1984 .

Abu Hamdan's work has been included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art , Guggenheim Museum , Van Abbemuseum , Center Pompidou and Tate Modern .

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

Awards

literature

  • Lawrence Abu Hamdan: (Inaudible): a politics of listening in 4 acts . Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2016. ISBN 978-3-95679-241-0 (exhibition catalog).
  • Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Hear, Hear . In: Texts on Art , No. 108, December 2017, pp. 79–86.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Maria Anna Tappeiner: Lawrence Abu Hamdan . In: kunstforum.de (accessed December 2, 2019).
  2. ↑ Abu Hamdan, Lawrence . In: berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de (accessed on December 2, 2019).
  3. ↑ Tomasz Kurianowicz: Culture Tips . In: rbb-online.de, November 2, 2019 (accessed December 2, 2019).
  4. ↑ Lawrence Abu Hamdan . In: kunsthaus-bregenz.at (accessed on December 2, 2019).
  5. ↑ Utta Raifer: The artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan is a detective of sounds . In: morgenpost.de, November 6, 2019 (accessed December 2, 2019).
  6. ↑ a b c d e Sensation in the British art world . In: tagesschau.de, December 4, 2019 (accessed December 4, 2019).
  7. ↑ a b c d Charlotte Higgins: Silence or death: Turner finalist Lawrence Abu Hamdan on recreating a horrific Syrian jail . In: theguardian.com, October 1, 2019 (accessed December 2, 2019).
  8. ↑ a b Biography . In: lawrenceabuhamdan.com (accessed December 2, 2019).
  9. ↑ a b c Lawrence Abu Hamdan . In: sfeir-semler.com (accessed December 2, 2019).
  10. ↑ a b c Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Hear, Hear . In: Texts on Art, No. 108, December 2017, pp. 79–86 (accessed on December 2, 2019).
  11. ↑ a b Turner Prize 2019: Lawrence Abu Hamdan . In: tate.org.uk (accessed December 2, 2019).
  12. ↑ a b Mark Brown: Turner prize awarded four ways after artists' plea to judges . In: theguardian.com, December 3, 2019 (accessed December 4, 2019).
personal data
SURNAME Abu Hamdan, Lawrence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-Lebanese artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1985
PLACE OF BIRTH Amman , Jordan