Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement 2018 — The Sound of Screens Imploding — Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève

Walled Unwalled

In the year 2000 there was a total of fifteen fortified border walls and fences between sovereign nations. Today, there are sixty-three. As these walls were being constructed, millions of invisible cosmic particles called muons descended into the Earth’s atmosphere to penetrate in-depth through concrete, soil, and rock. Scientists harvested these particles and used their peculiar physical capacities to pass through surfaces previously impervious to X-rays. Muons allowed us to see for the first time the contraband hidden in lead-lined shipping containers and secret chambers buried inside the stone walls of the pyramids. Now no wall on Earth is impermeable. Today, we’re all wall, and no wall at all.

Lawrence Abu Hamdan is an artist and audio investigator working with sound and its political implications. His audio investigations have been adapted and developed for different forums—not just galleries and museums, but also sites of advocacy and legal work. He regularly collaborates with Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths College London.