“2024 ARKO Young
Artist Day: Neo-Meta-Trans” Poster
image ©ARKO Art CenterBarakat
Contemporary presents Lawrence Abu Hamdan's first solo exhibition in Korea,
“Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Zifzafa,” through November 3. Abu Hamdan is a researcher,
filmmaker, writer, activist, and self-described independent acoustic
investigator (Private Ear) whose work unfolds through sound.
His auditory
investigations have taken him all over the world, including Syria, Lebanon,
Palestine, France, and the UK, where he has developed his own aesthetic. Abu
Hamdan often works in collaboration with non-governmental organizations such as
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Defense for Children International,
and the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem.
In fact,
it serves to emphasize the importance of the “politics of listening,” which is
a fundamental and crucial element of the artist's practice. Abu Hamdan's sound
work has actually been used as legal evidence to resolve real-life disputes, as
well as having great appeal to people on the margins, those exposed to war and
violence.
Abu
Hamdan's new project Zifzafa, which will be presented for the first time
at Barakat Contemporary, is an Arabic term for the sound of wind rattling and
shaking objects, leaves, and anything else in its path. For the first time at
Barakat Contemporary, Abu Hamdan presents a new project that examines the sound
and wind dynamics inherent in Zifzafa in a broader geopolitical context.
In this
exhibition, Abu Hamdan explores the relationship between noise and the harm and
impact of the Israeli government's current coercive project to build 31 wind
farms near villages in the Golan Heights, and exposes the Israeli government's
political and ideological strategies behind the project.
In addition to the exhibition, Barakat Contemporary
will also host Abu Hamdan's lecture performance Natq on September 4,
Samcheong Night, at 8 pm.
