_{58th Venice Biennale, 2019}


Lawrence Abu Hamdan (b.1985) is a Lebanese-British independent investigator or Private Ear. His investigations focus on sound and have been used as evidence at the UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, as advocacy for organizations such as Amnesty International and Defence for Children International and presentations at the UN security council.

Abu Hamdan received his PhD in 2017 from Goldsmiths College University of London and in 2021 completed a professorship at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz where he developed his research airpressure.info. Past fellowships have been held at the University of Chicago, in 2017/18 he was a guest of the DAAD artist in Berlin program and from 2015/17 a fellow at the Vera List Centre for Art and Politics at the New School in New York.

Abu Hamdan was exhibited at the 12th Berlin Biennale, the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, the 58th Venice Biennale, the 11th Gwanju Biennale, the 13th and 14th Sharjah Biennial, Witte De With, Rotterdam, Tate Modern Tanks, Chisenhale Gallery, Hammer Museum L.A and the Portikus Frankfurt. His works are in the collections of MoMA, New York, Guggenheim, New York, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Kunsthaus Zurich, and Tate Modern, London. Abu Hamdan’s work has been awarded the 2019 Edvard Munch Art Award, the 2016 Nam June Paik Award for new media and in 2017 his film Rubber Coated Steel won the Tiger short film award at the Rotterdam International Film festival. For the 2019 Turner Prize Abu Hamdan, together with nominated artists Helen Cammock, Oscar Murillo and Tai Shani, formed a temporary collective in order to be jointly granted the award.