Art linking two cultures

An art exhibition entitled “Meeting Here” is being shown at the German House here in Addis starting from October 29, 2009.Over 70 works of two Ethiopian and two German artists are on view at the show organized by GTZ.
Intended to be as a synthesis of cooperation and linkages between two cultures, the artists Merikokeb Berhanu, Christian Voight, Karin Fiedler and Mulugeta Gebrekidan have come up with works that differ widely in style and presentation, nevertheless sharing a common theme: the impersonality of art that transcends boundary.

ICES to be held in Addis

The 17th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (ICES) will be held at the Addis Ababa University from November 2 to 6, 2009.Shiferaw Bekele, a teacher at Department of History and Heritage Management of Addis Ababa University, has written a long article about the event and its background in October 25th edition of the Ethiopian Herald.The article isn’t available online. So I am publishing an excerpt here.
The 17th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies will be held in the Akaki campus of Addis Ababa University from November 2 to 6, 2009.A few hundred scholars-Ethiopians and foreigners-are expected to take part in the proceedings: Scholars will come from Japan; Europe; the US, Israel, Russia and some other countries. Ethiopians will constitute a formidable presence. By any standard, this is a large gathering of scholars. The current congress marks the golden jubilee celebration because the first was held in Rome from 2 to 4 April 1959.

Watching Juie Mehretu on PBS

On Sunday October 11, 2009, Zoma Contemporary Art Center (ZCAC), a newly finished house designed and built by artist Elias Sime in around Old Airport area, screened video of an episode from the American Public Broadcasting Service series Art:21-Art in the Twenty–First Century. Though not familiar with Ethiopian audiences, the PBS series has been running since 2001 and now is in its fifth season spotlighting artists from various parts of the world. It appeared that that each of the four episodes presented three or four artists loosely grouped around a theme, documenting the artists in their own words.
The theme of the segment that we happened to watch was ‘system’, with questions: what new grammars and logics do artists invent in today’s supercharged, information-based society? Why do we find comfort in some systems while rebelling against others?
The four artists who received the focus were the Ethiopian-American Julie Mehretu, South Korean artist Kimsooja and American artists John Baldessari and Allan McCollum.
Before the screening, curator and director of ZCAC, Meskerem Aseged made a welcoming speech to the small crowd and said that the screening was being done in partnership with PBS with the intention to increase knowledge of contemporary art, create dialogue, and inspire creative thinking.
Meskerem briefly mentioned about knowing Julie Meheretu before she became famous when she was a small-time studio artist in New York and later meeting her in Dakar, a fact that she was visibly excited about.

Art sale

The business weekly, Fortune has carried a front page news on art sale at the recent Sheraton Addis’s Art of Ethiopia exhibition. The paper in today’s issue disclosed the most prized sale of the exhibition, a work by Mezgebu Tessema, pictured on the top, that fetched 110,000 Br. The painting was secured by Sheraton Addis. However, the pricey painting displayed at the exhibition was by Afework Tekle, tagged with a price of over a million Birr. It was not sold, though. The painting depicting a beautiful young woman, pictured here in the right, was by Daniel Taye; it was bought by Dreje Yesusework (Jambi), a close confidant of Shiekh Mohammed Ali Al-Amoudi, for 35,000 Br, the paper disclosed.
The artists whose works have been sold have agreed to “contribute portion from the proceeds of their sales towards establishing the Sheraton Art Endowment Fund”, according to Jean Pierre Manigoff, general manger of the Sheraton Addis.

A chat with Addis’s foremost art afficionado

For Mesfin Gebreyes Oda, art has always been an object of interest, starting from his early school days at Lycée Guebre Mariam in the mid fifties and sixties. But it was a chance encounter with the works of Ethiopian modernist artist Gebre Kirstos Desta that made him take the business of art collecting seriously, an unusual passion for an Ethiopian. The 60-year-old Mesfin recalled the day when someone approached him and asked him if he was interested in acquiring the works of the artist Gebre Kirstos. He went right away and saw the self-portrait of Gebre Kirstos and three other of his sketches. “I was so moved. I bought the whole lot, four of them. That was twenty years ago,” he told me recently, sitting in the garden of Sheraton Addis.
Since then Mesfin has been collecting paintings and drawings of Gebre Kirstos, Skunder Boghossian and many other contemporary artists.

Looking Ahead

By Prof. Donald N. Levine
A half century ago, the ill-fated coup attempt against Emperor Haile Sellassie I in December 1960 marked the moment when Ethiopia entered the era of modernizing revolutions. The event, I have argued (www.eineps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746), became the first of several missed opportunities that Ethiopia suffered while trying to become a politically modern state. In hopes that the 2010 elections may offer an opportunity that this time Ethiopians might seize with complete success, I offer some thoughts on the challenging year ahead.
First off, let us acknowledge that nearly all parties involved in the tragic events of 2005 seem determined not to repeat their major mistakes. The Government will not again react with excessive violence to demonstrations or public protests. Opposition candidates will not refuse to accept the positions to which they were duly elected. Both sides will probably refrain from the most grievously inflammatory elements of their electoral rhetoric and focus on issues.

Airport worker returns lost money

Selome/Addis Journal

Many people who find $ 500 lying on the floor might be tempted to keep it in their pockets. But an Ethiopian airport worker decided to “do the right thing” instead.
A young woman named Selome Getachew who works for the Ethiopian Revenues and Custom Authority Bole Airport Branch honestly retuned $ 500 that a passenger lost on the floor of the stand where she was declaring passengers’ currency.

Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin Memorial Prize launched

A new prize named after the acclaimed Ethiopian playwright and poet Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin was launched in Addis at the National Theater on Monday, September 7. Established by the playwright’s family members and friends, the Institute of the Language Studies of Addis Ababa University Poet Laureate Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin Memorial Prize is intended to encourage literature and theater arts students to study hard, pursue senior honors and contribute to the art world.
The prize intended to be an annual event would be given to the best contribution by a student member. Berhanu Asfaw from the Department of Ethiopian Languages and Literature and Tegegnto Sinshaw from the Theaters Arts Department were winners of the first prize.

Art Exhibition at Sheraton

The second annual Art of Ethiopia exhibition took place at Sheraton Addis from September 3rd until September 6th 2009. Elegantly installed at the Lalibela Ballroom, the show included masterpiece after masterpiece by well-known and lesser-known artists.300 paintings of artists ranging from Afeweork Tekle, Ale Felege Selam and Yohannes Gedamu through young painters Dawit Abebe, Mathias Lulu were presented at the exhibition.The exhibition included different disciplines, from traditional figurative painting to abstract works, sculpture, and stone carving.

Sahag Boghossian dies

A prominent member of the Armenian community Sahag Boghossian has died at the age of 98 last Monday. He was buried at the St. Kevork Armenian church near Seba Deredga area yesterday afternoon.
A lawyer, businessman and patriot, Boghossian has been one of the most recognized and well-liked figures in Addis Ababa.
Born in Addis Ababa in Arat kilo on July 22, 1911, Sahag was the 8th child of ten children.His father Krikorios Boghossian settled in Ethiopia during Emperor Menelik’s time and was important in the affairs of the state.