Lawrence Abu Hamdan

Lawrence Abu Hamdan was born in 1985 in Amman, Jordan

“The Private Ear”, is an artist and audio investigator. In 2023 he founded Earshot, the world’s first organization using sound in defence of human and environmental rights. Abu Hamdan has presented his work in the form of forensic reports, expert testimony, lectures and live performances, films, publications, and exhibitions worldwide, including at the Munch Museum, Oslo (2025); MUDAM, Luxemburg (2024); Frac Franche Comté, Besançon (2024); Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburg (2023); MUAC, Mexico City (2023); MoMA, New York (2023); Spike Island, Bristol (2023); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2022); Sharjah Art Foundation (2022); Kunstverein Nürnberg (2021); Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2021); Secession, Vienna (2020); Towner Eastbourne, UK (2020); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2019), among others.

His works are part of collections at Reina Sofia, MoMA, Guggenheim, Hamburger Bahnhof, Van AbbeMuseum, Centre Pompidou and Tate Modern. Abu Hamdan has been widely recognized internationally with awards such as the Grand Prix at Winterthur International Film Festival, the 2020 Toronto Biennial Audience Award, the 2019 Edvard Munch Art Award, the award for best short film at the 2017 Rotterdam International Film Festival and the 2016 Nam June Paik Award for new media. For the 2019 Turner Prize where together with nominated artists Helen Cammock, Oscar Murillo and Tai Shani, Abu Hamdan formed a temporary collective in order to be jointly granted the award. 

Lawrence Abu Hamdan is the co-winner of the Turner Prize 2019. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Jean Vigo Award, the 2020 EMAF Award, the 2019 Edvard Munch Art Award, the Baloise Art Prize 2018 and the Abraaj Art Prize 2018. In 2017, he won the short film award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and in 2016, he received the Nam June Paik Award for new media. More recently, he was awarded the 2022 Future Fields Commission in Time-Based Media by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.

won the short film award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and in 2016, he received the Nam June Paik Award for new media. More recently, he was awarded the 2022 Future Fields Commission in Time-Based Media by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.

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Once Removed, 2019 (Video, color, sound - Exhibition view, 22nd Biennale of Sydney, 2020)View of the exhibition Lawrence Abu Hamdan. Air Conditioning, 29.03 — 09.06.2024, Mudam Luxembourg © Photo : Studio Rémi VillaggiDisputed Utterance, 2019 (Installation : 14 dioramas, c-prints mounted on cardboard, 7 texts printed on plexiglas plates)This whole time there were no land mines, 2017 (8 channel Video installation, Color, sound – Exhibition view, Venice Biennale, 2019)Inaubible, 2018 (Exhibition view, mor charpentier, Paris)This whole time there were no land mines, 2017 (8 channel video installation, color, sound – Exhibition view, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, 2020)Saydnaya [ray traces], 2017. (Digital drawings, overhead projectors – Installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2018)Installation view, Art parcours, Basel, 2019)The Recovered Manifesto of Wissam [inaudible], 2017 (Mixed Media Installation : artificial trees, cassette tapes, sound piece – Exhibition view, mor charpentier, Paris, 2018)The Recovered Manifesto of Wissam [inaudible], 2017 (Mixed Media Installation : artificial trees, cassette tapes, sound pieceAmir Shakib Arslan Mosque (Site Specific Intervention – Installation view, Moukhtara, Lebanon, 2016)Earshot, 2016 (Installation : digital prints, video – Exhibition view, MACBA, Barcelona, 2017)Earshot, 2016 (Mixed media installation : digital prints, video – Installation view, Gwangju Biennial, 2016)A Convention of Tiny Movements, 2015 (Installation: C-print, sound piece, kleenex box on table – Exhibition view, British Art Show, Leeds, 2015)Beneath the Surface, 2015 (Mixed media installation : 7 wooden panels, sound piece – Exhibition view, FRAC Franche Comté, 2019)Contra Diction :Speech Against Itself, 2015 (Single channel video installation, color, sound – Exhibition view, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, 2015)A conversation with an Unemployed, 2013 (Digital prints mounted on light boxes – Exhibition view, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, 2014)Tape Echo, 2013 (Mixed Media Installation – Exhibition view, New Museum Triennial, New York, 2013)The Freedom of Speech Itself, 2012 (Mixed Media Installation, sound piece, foam, table – Exhibition view, The Showroom, London, 2012)Conflicted Phonemes, 2012 (Vinyl wall prints, Printed sheets on shelf – Installation view, Tate Modern, London, 2013)