Press room

Ahead of tickets going on sale today, Wednesday 24 June, the Barbican announces further programme details for Repercussions, a bold new multi-day takeover led by Turner Prize-winning artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan this September. Marking the first artist-led cross-arts takeover of its kind at the Barbican, the project will transform the Centre’s venues into a dynamic, interdisciplinary platform exploring the urgent and evolving concept of sonic rights.

Spanning four days, Repercussions brings together an installation, performances, screenings, panel discussions and live music to examine the wide-ranging impact of sound, from the pernicious damage of noise pollution to the power of silence as a means of political resistance. Through newly commissioned work, live events and participatory activity, audiences are invited to consider the many facets and perspectives of sonic self-determination in today’s world.

Abu Hamdan, internationally recognised for his pioneering work at the intersection of sound, advocacy and human rights, will lead the programme alongside his not-for-profit organisation Earshot, founded in 2023. Often describing himself as a “Private Ear,” Abu Hamdan employs audio analysis, aural testimony, and in-depth research to identify and investigate various crimes and human rights abuses, publishing his findings with Earshot for use by major news organisations, NGOs, and grass-roots community groups. He then uses installation, video, and live performance to reflect and meditate on the wider political, social and cultural implications of his investigations. Together, his work has fundamentally reshaped how audio evidence is mined and understood, within the realms of art, law, and global human rights discourse. With Repercussions, he brings this investigative approach into a collective, public setting – reshaping the Barbican into a site for listening, reflection and shared inquiry.

At a moment of environmental crises, political unrest, contested facts and legal impunity, Repercussions aims to be a catalyst for conversation by bringing together collaborators from across the fields of art, music, and activism. Drawing on Earshot’s recent investigations, audiences will be asked to lend their ears to a range of sonic experiences, from the reverberating echo of a gunshot and the buzz of community life in the Syrian Golan Heights to the force of silent protest in Belgrade.

Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Artist and Organiser of Repercussions, says: “It is a tremendous honour to be trusted with the Barbican’s first ever, cross-arts building-wide takeover. It seems fitting that a practice routed in sonics should be the first to bleed through the walls of theatre, cinema and visual art. This is an opportunity not only to platform the work I do but showcase the entire village of practitioners that inspire and bring the work into being. The pace at which Earshot has moved from incident to incident, crime to crime, in just 3 years has become dizzying, and this is a moment to collectively reflect on what has been and can be achieved. As the old order of international laws and cooperation becomes undermined and impunity increasingly tolerated, there arises a clear mandate to experiment with alternative forums, where new kinds of hearings can be practiced. This programme is an attempt to do just that.” 

Bringing together diverse artistic and investigative practices, Repercussions acts as a catalyst for dialogue around the complex topic of sonic self-determination, with each component attempting to tune into and consider multiple claims regarding the political agency of sound. Through its development and realisation, the programme will contribute to the evolution of Earshot’s inaugural international protocols for sonic rights, positioning the Barbican as a platform for art that engages with the most pressing issues of our time. 

This project forms part of the Barbican’s 2026 programme and reflects its ongoing commitment to commissioning bold new work from some of today’s most exciting international artists. Activating the breadth of its spaces and artforms, the artist takeover format unlocks new possibilities through which audiences can encounter ambitious, cross-disciplinary art. 

Entry to the installation, Zifzafa, is free. Tickets for other events in the takeover range from £14–£25, with multi-buy discounts of 20% off when booking two events and 30% off when booking three or more.

Full programme information: Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Repercussions | Barbican 

Installation: Zifzafa
Weds 23 – Sat 26 Sept 2026, 12-8pm daily 
The Pit 
Free 
The London premiere of two video works, Zifzafa: Livestream Audio Essay (2025) and Wind Ensemble (2024), hosted in The Pit over four days. Free to visit and positioned as a central hub for the takeover, Abu Hamdan’s installation presents an acoustic portrait of the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. In Zifzafa: Livestream Audio Essay, a video-game simulation accurately models the sonic impact of a proposed wind turbine development in the region, the sound pollution from which would effectively annex the local Jawlani community. Presented in dialogue with this work, Wind Ensemble shows saxophonist Amr Mdah performing from the balcony of a home located just 50 metres from the site of one of these proposed wind turbines. 

Performance: 450 XL: A silent movie
Weds 23 Sept, 6pm & 8pm  
Cinema 1 
£20
A new performance by Abu Hamdan draws on Earshot’s investigation into a reported sonic attack during a silent vigil in Belgrade in March 2025. Developed from earwitness testimonies, recordings, and forensic analysis, the work explores the politics of listening and the role of sound as both evidence and weapon. The event opens with an introductory lecture by Abu Hamdan titled Listening to Punks and evolves into the newly commissioned performance featuring visuals by Earshot’s Hyeongji Yang and an original score by James Hoff, performed live in Cinema 1. 

Screening: The Last Responders & Blow Out
Introduced by Caline Matar, Earshot
Thurs 24 Sept, 7pm 
Cinema 1 
£14
This double bill brings together two films that place listening at the centre of investigation, treating sound as a vital witness to events that might otherwise remain obscured. Moving between documentary inquiry and cinematic suspense, the films show how acts of listening can expose violence, surface suppressed histories, and challenge dominant narratives.

Created through a collaboration between Forensic Architecture and Earshot, The Last Responders (2026) is a documentary by Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed A. Gawad that follows an investigation into an attack by the Israeli military, drawing on testimony, audio analysis and spatial reconstruction. Brian De Palma's cult thriller Blow Out (1981) approaches sonic inquiry through fiction, following a sound recordist who becomes entangled in a political conspiracy after inadvertently capturing evidence of what he believes to be a murder. 

Performance: Sykes-Picot & Air Pressure
Fri 25 Sept, 7.30pm  
Barbican Theatre  
£20 / £25
Two performances in Barbican Theatre confront the violence of borders in the Middle East.

Premiering at the Barbican, Sykes-Picot is a newly commissioned performance by composer Matthew Herbert and sound-designer and documentary maker Rana Eid which reflects on the legacy of the clandestine agreement made over 100 years ago, by British and French diplomats Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, to define their respective spheres of influence in the Middle East.

Abu Hamdan’s Air Pressure draws on research, conducted between May 2020 and May 2021, into the aerial soundscape of Lebanon, documenting 2,412 instances of Israeli fighter jets and drones.  Delivered as a diary with live audio processing, the performance analyses the relationship between background noise and atmospheres of violence. Air Pressure is performed by Lawrence Abu Hamdan with live sound design by Moe Choucair.

Screening: Rififi
Introduced by Caline Matar, Earshot
Sat 26 Sept, 2pm 
Cinema 1 
£14
Jules Dassin's Rififi (1955) remains one of cinema's most celebrated crime films, renowned for its extraordinary thirty-minute burglary sequence, carried out almost entirely in silence. Stripping away dialogue and music, Dassin transforms listening itself into a source of tension, forcing audiences to attend to every scrape, creak and breath. The film's meticulous attention to sonic detail reveals how sound – and its absence – can become a crime scene.

Listening session and Discussion: The Crack and the Boom
Presentations by Machine Listening (Sean Dockray, James Parker, and Joel Stern), Susan Schuppli, Caline Matar and Mhamad Safa. Moderated by Matthew Herbert.
Sat 26 Sept, 4.30pm 
Cinema 1 
£14
As open-source investigation has transformed how we verify images of violence, this panel asks what happens when we extend that scrutiny to sound. Bringing together artists, musicians, researchers, legal scholars and investigators, it examines the emerging role of sound and listening in documenting violence, environmental harm and political conflict. 

At a moment when visual evidence is routinely disputed and testimony undermined, sound offers another medium through which to speak the truth. This panel will argue that sound doesn't just add to the story; it can change how we see it, opening up new kinds of political claims, and new grounds on which justice can be sought. Speakers working across environmental science, music, AI, journalism, and history bring their respective disciplines to a single question: what can we claim, and what can we prove, by listening closer?

Machine Listening is a platform for collaborative research founded in 2020 by Sean Dockray, James Parker, and Joel Stern in order to subject automated systems to political scrutiny.

Susan Schuppli is an artist, documentary filmmaker, researcher and author of Material Witness who directs the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Caline Matar is the deputy director of Earshot. 

Mhamad Safa is a sound artist, architect and researcher, based between London and Beirut.

Matthew Herbert is an award-winning composer, artist, producer and writer whose range of innovative works extends from more than 30 albums and scores.

Performance: Final Repercussions
Sat 26 Sept, 7.30pm  
Barbican Theatre  
£20 / £25 
Bringing Repercussions to a close, this evening of music weaves together a curated selection of extraordinary sonic and visual experiences.

Abu Hamdan presents 1000 White Plastic Chairs (2020), a “live audio essay” performed in the dark, accompanied by Earshot’s Fabio Cervi on electric guitar, which draws on historical accounts of the Nuremberg Trials to reflect on the entangled relationship between technology and testimony. Abu Hamdan’s regular musical collaborator, composer Busher Kanj, from Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, presents a new work incorporating field recordings, electronics, string quintet and saxophone, performed by Amr Mdah.

French composer and artist Felicia Atkinson balances the human voice against environmental elements in this special performance - a new work entitled The Room That Sounds Like Hands Rubbing Together, which incorporates audio from Earshot's archive. And finally, James Hoff and Ben Kudler present Radical Democracy, a spellbinding journey through global surveillance systems, accompanied by an immersive ambient soundtrack.

Workshop: Sound Evidence
Fri 25 Sept, 5.30-7pm 
Sat 26 Sept, 10.30am-1.30pm 
Fountain Room 
£20 
As part of the takeover, the Barbican will host a two-day workshop, Sound Evidence, led by Earshot investigators Fabio Cervi and Renate Baumane. The sessions introduce participants to the methods of sonic investigation, exploring how sound can address the limitations of visual evidence and serve as a tool for analysing events, identifying manipulation and documenting forms of violence that may evade the camera’s view. This workshop is limited to 20 participants.

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Repercussions is generously supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a Donor Advised Fund, held at The Prism Charitable Trust. 450 XL: A silent movie by Lawrence Abu Hamdan is commissioned by the Barbican and FIGURA with additional support from the Commissioning Council and the Fondazione In Between Art Film.

Founding members of the Commissioning Council include: Anastasia Bukhman/Bukhman Foundation, Stephanie Camu, Aarti Lohia/SP Lohia Foundation, Mark and Dana Strong, Tia Collection and Brian Yue & Claire Bi/Cheng-Lan Foundation.

About Lawrence Abu Hamdan

Lawrence Abu Hamdan (Amman, Jordan, 1985) has been exploring the role of sound and voice within the fields of law and human rights for over a decade. In 2019, he won the Turner Prize for his 2018 exhibition Earwitness Theatre at Chisenhale Gallery.

Abu Hamdan is a multidisciplinary artist whose experimental practice defies conventional classification. Describing himself as a “Private Ear,” Abu Hamdan uses sound analysis and aural testimony to investigate human rights abuses and bring awareness to the urgent, yet under-researched, issues of our time. Crucially, he transforms these investigations into multi-media installations or “live audio essays,” which deftly merge various art forms to engage audiences in timely and nuanced conversations. 

In 2023, he founded Earshot, the world’s first not-for-profit organisation producing audio investigations for human rights and environmental advocacy. Investigating "crimes that lie beyond the camera’s frame," they aim to amplify collaborative efforts within an ecosystem of grassroot movements, local activists, international human rights organisations, media outlets, and investigative journalists, seeking justice for communities affected by corporate, state, and environmental violence. His work with Earshot regularly furnishes organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, The Washington Post, Sky News, Al Jazeera and many others with the information they need to produce the most accurate reporting possible.