450XL: The Story of a Fugitive Sound

Lawrence Abu Hamdan (@lawrenceabuhamdan), represented by Mor Charpentier (@morcharpentier), is showing at Canicula — Fondazione In Between Art Film’s (@fondazioneinbetweenartfilm) collateral exhibition at the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto, Venice — on view until 22 November 2026.

The work begins with a silent vigil in Belgrade, March 2025. Hundreds of thousands gathered. Then, without warning, the crowd dispersed — in response to something no recording device could detect. Witnesses contacted Earshot NGO, Abu Hamdan’s forensic sound agency, seeking to understand what had occurred.

The investigation — 15 earwitness interviews, 19 videos, 3,244 written testimonies — pointed toward the LRAD 450XL: a directional acoustic weapon, deployed against a civilian population for the first time on record.

The installation unfolds across fifteen screens. Silent text-based testimonies alternate with footage of the vigil. Silence here is not absence — it is the site of the work.

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