Lawrence Abu Hamdan brings explosion of Golan Heights wind turbines to Oslo

Before you see the new exhibition by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, you will hear the new exhibition by Lawrence Abu Hamdan. In the glittering Monk Museum in Oslo, the faint sound of the saxophone drifts toward the open promenade on the 10th floor. The source of music was found in Gallery 10, an unorthodox space with 28-foot ceilings and sloping walls that reflect the building’s own iconic tilt. It is here that Abu Hamdan staged “Zifzafa”, a new exhibition of politically accused exploring how voices can be both a tool for celebrating life and displaced. Taking its title from the old Arabic word for a fierce wind that shakes and rattles everything in its path, “Zifzafa” revolves around Abu Hamdan’s forensic audio investigation into the impact that 31 wind turbines will soon have on the native population in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, or Jawlan, as it’s known in Arabic and referred to by the local Jawlani population.

Saxophone comes from one of the three video works that are viewed, namely hypnotic single-channel video projection Wind band (2024), the voice of Jawlani Saxophonist Amr Mdah sounded. In a short video of an amplifier mesh, Mdah frames the house’s balcony, which is about 164 feet from the new turbine. opposite Wind band yes Tilt on windmills I, II and III (2024) features three short loop CGI animations that visualize sound pollution that will soon linger on Jawlan like RainClouds. But the star of this show is a 45-minute movie Zifzafa: Live audio paper (2025), this is the center stage where four projectors shoot out on the gallery’s wide back wall.

for Zifzafa: Live audio paper (2025), Abu Hamdan uses the popular online video format “Video Game Walkthrough” as a framework device for making his own video games, which can recreate the buildings and sounds of occupied Jawlan, as well as planned turbines. Open source and available online, the game allows anyone to explore the area and experience the sound effects of these future structures as they drown out the sounds of cultural life. Some turbines will be 115 feet from the house, and once they run, it can effectively make these spaces uninhabitable.

“Now, [the game] It’s the only place you can turn on the turbine and simulate what it sounds like in the future.

There are two key auditory components in the work: the noise of the turbine in Gailsdorf, Germany, recorded by engineer Adam Laschinger, and hours of recording by Jawlan, recorded by local composer and sound artist Busher Kanj Abu Saleh. Moving on the map, for example, the player will hear a man on the megaphone, inviting anyone within the listener to the wedding. Flautist and Shepherd’s music, Ibrahim Zen; and the pump’s methodical inclination. It was the sound of water that had the most profound effect on Abu Hamdan, although it took him some time to understand the full meaning. As the Israeli state has solicited access to all water sources, the Jalani people have established an autonomous network of pipelines, ponds, reservoirs and pumps, a small but crucial victory over the military occupation. “In a sense, listening to these sounds is not just listening to that environment,” he said. “It’s about listening to the act of resistance.”

In addition to the visual and sound experience of Jawlan’s visual and sound experience, a “live chat” box, a staple for video game drills, can also serve as a medium for roaming, context-heavy monologues provided by user “earshot_”. One minute, the chat talks about “the satisfying debris landed in the basket by the famous Jawlani Apple” and then transitions to the explanation of water restrictions or the background of Energix Renewables, an Israeli energy company that builds the turbines. When the turbine is on, a series of vivid descriptions are the look of noise—for example, “let the truck pass your head” is sent into the chat.

Although the quality of the other two works is different, the physical effect of the style-integrated setting is transcended, even if most of it is unintentional; the texture of the amplifier, coupled with the darkness of the room, makes the musician appear as if it is covered by diamonds – together these three works form a strong sense entry point that makes the people of Jorani stand on the continual struggle against the Israeli military occupation. The road to bring Abu Hamdan to the area and subsequently heading to Munch for the exhibition began in 2019 when he received the Edvard Munch Art Award. Despite the award bringing promises of a solo exhibition, the construction of the building and the global pandemic have delayed plans.

Meanwhile, the Jordanian, the artist hosted by Turner Prive has cemented his reputation as a “private ear” for his immersive art installations and forensic audio investigations into violations of human and environmental rights. Jawlan’s Arab Human Rights Center Al Marsad contacts the artist’s nonprofit ear NShot in 2023 to simulate sound interference from the proposed wind turbine. For the Jawlani people, the turbines marked another chapter in a long struggle, beginning with Israel seizing two-thirds of the land in the 1967 Six Days War. While Energix Renewables claims that these turbines will occupy less than a mile of space, Abu Hamdan’s research shows that their acoustic footprint is nine times larger, and that quarter of the land accounts for land that can be used in Jawlanis today.

At this particular moment, when the performance of Israel is very critical – when opposing the country’s war of extermination against Palestine, this led to funding and total cancellation of the art world and total cancellation, which was ongoing, even if completely unexpected, continued in Munch’s show with increasing numbers. Last November’s Vanessa Baird exhibition “Go with Me”, partly through multiple floor-to-ceiling tapestries to solve the Palestinian suffering, portraying the cruelty of the war. In mid-September, the institution’s Monk Prize was presented to New York-based Palestinian artist Samia Halaby.

For senior curator Dr. Tominga O’Donnell, the timing of these events was accidental, but still reflects a broader dedication to respecting artistic freedom of speech. She told Artnews. “The only thing we can do as an institution is to provide a platform as safe as the current political climate.”

The “Zifzafa” project has been shown in other forms in other spaces, but in this particular space it feels like the house has been found. Although Abu Hamdan’s sprawling video game takes up the largest physical space on the show, the sound of Mdah’s saxophone may have been hovering for the longest time after leaving the museum. As Abu Hamdan drifted in the gallery with faint notes,[I wanted] To help people understand, some people’s entire voice world is shaped by that place. It was a vigorous move of voice self-determination and a funeral to some extent because we knew it would be lost. ”