Doors: 13:30
Event start: 14:00
Seated event
Note: The event is free, but be aware that a ticket does not guarantee a seat. Due to limited capacity, please arrive early to secure your spot.
*Please remember to allow time to reach the 12th floor and to store bags, umbrellas, and liquids in the lockable wardrobe in the lobby.
Zifzafa is an Arabic word describing a wind that shakes and rattles everything in its path. Lawrence Abu Hamdan has created a work which demonstrates the effect that more than 30 planned wind turbines will have upon the inhabitants of the occupied Golan Heights. Via a video game simulation, audiences can move through the landscape and hear the sounds made by 250-metre wind turbines. Abu Hamdan also includes a video of saxophonist Amr Mdah, playing from the balcony of one of the area’s small houses. The music blends with the noise of the turbines, children playing, bees buzzing and birds singing. In this way, Abu Hamdan creates an acoustic archive over the local environment.
As well as being a powerful installation in itself, the work also addresses important critical questions to do with the green movement and those who suffer in the transition to so-called clean energy. This is especially relevant in connection with the anti-wind turbine protests here in Norway/Sápmi.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan (born 1985, Amman) has described himself as a Private Ear, on behalf of people under attack from state authorities and others such as Israeli soldiers in Palestine, the Parisian police or torture in Syrian jails. His work has been presented in the form of forensics reports, lectures, live performances, films, publications and exhibitions around the world. He runs earshot.ngo.
Dr Tominga O’Donnell is Senior Curator and Head of Contemporary Art at MUNCH. They curated the programme Munchmuseet on the Move (2016–2019), adopting a queer curatorial approach and commissioning a range of off-site art projects. At MUNCH, O’Donnell is the curator of several solo exhibitions including Camille Henrot, Sandra Mujinga and Lawrence Abu Hamdan; the inaugural MUNCH Triennale – the machine is us and a number of commissioned works in MUNCH's performance initiative.
This event is a collaboration with Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival.
©Diana Pfammatter Photography