Over 13,000 people have been executed in the Syrian prison of Sayndaya, since the protests erupted in 2011. Located 25 kilometres north of Damascus, the notorious Assad-regime prison is inaccessible to independent observers and monitors. In 2016, Lawrence Abu Hamdan worked with Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture to produce an acoustic investigation into the prison’s gross violations of human rights. The memory of the few that were released from the prison was the only resource available to learn of and document what went on inside. The capacity of detainees to see anything in Saydnaya was highly restricted as they were mostly kept in darkness, blindfolded or made to cover their eyes. As a result, the prisoners developed an acute sensitivity to sound. Saydnaya (the missing 19db) is a listening room that demonstrates the levels of whispers before and after 2011.

The work was first commissioned by the 13th Sharjah Biennial.