Since 2010 Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s Aural Contract has been dedicated to understanding the role of voice in law and the changing nature of testimony in the face of new regimes of border control, algorithmic technologies, medical sciences, and modes of surveillance. These projects have taken the form of audiovisual installations, performances, graphic works, photography, Islamic sermons, cassette tape compositions, texts, forensic audio analysis, advocacy, expert testimony and, most recently, potato chip packets. In this talk he will present a body of work that attempts to define a politics of listening, that moves away from classic notions of advocacy and of giving people a voice. A politics of listening that does not simply seek to amplify voices but attempt to redefine what constitutes speech itself.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan is a visual artist and private ear with a background in DIY music. He has had solo exhibtions at Kunsthalle St Gallen, Beirut in Cairo, Casco Utrecht and The Showroom, London. Abu Hamdan was the Armory Show commissioned Artist of 2015 and has exhibited and performed at venues such as The New Museum, Van AbbeMuseum, The Shanghai Biennial (2014), The Whitechapel Gallery, MACBA, Tate Modern, M HKA and The Taipei Biennial (2012). In 2013 Abu Hamdan’s audio documentary The Freedom of Speech Itself was submitted as evidence at the UK asylum tribunal where the artist himself was called to testify as an expert witness. He continues to make sonic analyses for legal investigations and advocacy - most recently his audio analysis was prominently part the No More Forgotten Lives campaign for Defence for Children International. His writing can be found in Forensis Sternberg press, Manifesta Journal and Cabinet Magazine.
Today
Ongoing
Jean Charles de Quillacq: A real boy
Lecture, 19 November 2024, 19:00
Gabu Heindl & Drehli Robnik: Composing and Decomposing a Whole. Ideologies of Solutionism and Politics of Nonsolution
Lecture, 12 November 2024, 19:00
Diego Marcon
Screening (04. Nov) Lecture (05. Nov), 4 – 5 November 2024, 19:00
Dora Budor: Sidebar
Lecture, 29 October 2024, 19:00
Ghislaine Leung: Questions
Talk, 22 October 2024, 19:00
From Portikus to Prototype: How to Display Art in the City
Talk, 20 October 2024, 16:00
Nathalie Du Pasquier & Luca Lo Pinto: ON THE SHELF
Talk, 19 October 2024, 18:00
Biomorphic Window 01: Pharmakon / Kollaps / Lana del Rabies
Concert, 2 October 2024, 19:00–23:00
„The Frankfurt Prototype“
Opening, 1 October 2024, 18:00
Kasper König (1943–2024)
Obituary, 9 August 2024
Vera Palme: The And
Lecture, 9 July 2024, 19:00
Zasha Colah
Lecture, 2 July 2024, 19:00
The Call
Exhibition, 28 June – 21 July 2024
Dylan Solomon KRAUS: The Seventh Point on the Six Sided Die
Lecture, 11 June 2024, 19:00
Listening Session
Event, 3 June 2024, 17:00–20:00
Tarik Kiswanson
Lecture, 28 May 2024, 19:00
Guerilla Architects: WE ARE SORRY!
Lecture, 21 May 2024, 19:00
Pio Abad: To Those Sitting in Darkness
Lecture, 14 May 2024, 19:00
Sir Peter Cook: CONSIDERING THE PICTURESQUE
Lecture, 13 May 2024, 19:00
Débora Delmar: Property
Lecture, 7 May 2024, 19:00
JUNGE KUNST MIT ZUKUNFT
Event, 4 May 2024, 18:00
Elisa R. Linn: The Berlin Wall as a Condom
Lecture, 2 May 2024, 19:00
R.H. Quaytman: Book
Lecture, 30 April 2024, 19:00
Camille Norment: Cultural Psychoacoustics
Lecture, 23 April 2024, 19:00
Phillip Zaiser (1969–2024)
Obituary, 6 April 2024
Application: Master of Arts Program in CURATORIAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES
Information, 25 March – 31 May 2024
Water Cooler Talks 2024
Event, 10 February 2024, 10:00–18:00
Rundgang 2024
Exhibition, 9 – 11 February 2024, 10:00–20:00
Nora Turato: Lecture
Lecture, 6 February 2024, 19:00
Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé: Unmasking Series–Towards Public Co-creation
Lecture, 30 January 2024, 19:00
Unextractable? Sammy Baloji and Bénédicte Savoy in Conversation
Lecture, 25 January 2024, 19:00
Manon de Boer: Three Films
Lecture & Screening, 22 – 23 January 2024, 19:00
Ann Demeester: The Museum as Transhistorical ‘Garden of Consciousness’?
Lecture, 16 January 2024, 19:00
Moritz Fehr: Evocation, Installation, Simulation
Lecture, 9 January 2024, 19:00
Lawrence Abu Hamdan: A Politics of Listening
Lecture 2 February 2016, 19:00 Aula, Städelschule, Dürerstraße 10, 60596 Frankfurt am Main