Image: Common art center
Lawrence Abu Hamdan will present ‘Zifzafa’, a recent body of work examining the political effects of sound in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, at The Common Guild in Glasgow from 20 August to 17 October 2026. The project will also include a live performance at Leith Theatre in Edinburgh on 29 August, presented by Edinburgh Art Festival in collaboration with Falastin Film Festival.
Organised by The Common Guild, ‘Zifzafa’ is being shown for the first time in the UK in collaboration with Edinburgh Art Festival. The Glasgow exhibition will comprise a multichannel audiovisual installation, performance and video game. It is The Common Guild’s second project with Abu Hamdan, following the Glasgow International 2024 presentation ‘Live Audio Essays’ and the related project ‘Room for Reading / Lawrence Abu Hamdan’.
The work develops an audio investigation Abu Hamdan conducted over two years with fellow researchers at Earshot, the not-for-profit organisation he founded in 2023 to study audio for human rights and environmental advocacy. The investigation was commissioned by Al Marsad, an Arab human rights centre, and concerns the proposed construction of 31 large wind turbines in the Golan Heights, also referred to in the exhibition material as Jawlan.
According to The Common Guild, the proposed turbines would be built in what remains of the open space available to Jawlani Syrians, who have faced acts of expropriation and dispossession since 1967. The exhibition describes the renewable-energy scheme as an example of “green colonialism”, focusing on the way noise could alter the area’s geography and residents’ daily lives. The turbines are described as 256 metres tall, with anticipated noise levels of 70–90 decibels, comparable to a busy highway; some are planned as close as 35 metres from homes.
A central work, ‘Zifzafa: Livestream Audio Essay’ (2025), uses a simulated landscape to model the turbines’ sonic impact. The video digitally maps the sound footprint of a comparable wind-farm site recorded in Germany onto the geography of the Golan Heights. Field recordings by Jawlani composer and sound artist Busher Kanj Abu Saleh—including sounds of bees, cows, thunder, saxophones, shovels, weddings and children playing—are placed within the simulation through gaming software.
Other works include ‘Wind Ensemble’ (2024), a video projection onto stacked amplifiers featuring Jawlani musician Amr Mdah performing a saxophone composition from a farmhouse balcony, and the three-channel video ‘Tilting at Windmills i, ii & iii’ (2024). The title of the latter refers to the phrase associated with Don Quixote’s attack on windmills. The live performance will be scored by Abu Saleh, who will perform with Mdah and Earshot audio investigator Renate Lurdesa Baumane.
Abu Hamdan describes his practice as “forensic listening”. His investigations have been used as evidence at the UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and in a formal request to the International Criminal Court. His work has been presented at institutions and exhibitions including Tate Modern, MoMA New York, the Venice Biennale and MUNCH in Oslo, where ‘Zifzafa’ was first presented. The Common Guild will host an artist talk on 26 August from 6–7pm, followed by an exhibition preview from 7–8.30pm. The exhibition is free and open Thursday to Saturday, 12–5pm, at 5 Florence Street, Glasgow.
