Exhibitions
Julie Mehretu: The Addis Show
July 8-August 6, 2016
The Modern Art Museum Gebre Kristos Desta Center in collaboration with the United States Embassy is very pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition, Julie Mehretu: The Addis Show, from July 8, 2016 to August 6, 2016. The show will feature 17 of Mehretu’s paintings, ranging from her earliest paintings to her most recent works. The Museum is especially pleased to host this show as it will mark the first time that Mehretu will exhibit her work in Ethiopia, where she was born and raised until she was 7.
Julie Mehretu is widely considered one of the finest painters of her generation. She is known for her densely layered and mesmerizing abstract paintings, which often gesture to the language of architecture and geography as inspiration for abstract compositions, as well as commentary on the complex social worlds we inhabit. Mehretu’s work offers not only a new form of visual abstraction, but also a new perspective of the social and geographic networks that underpin the modern world.
We are also delighted to announce that along with the exhibition, we have planned a series of events with the artist, including a daylong symposium featuring artists, architects, curators and art historians, and workshops and lectures at Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar Universities.
Addis Ababa: The Enigma of the ‘New’ and the ‘Modern’ An Exhibition of four artists October 19 to December 19 2013 The exhibition Addis Ababa: The Enigma of the ‘New’ and the ‘Modern’ showcased four artists whose artistic voices interrogated notions of development and its impact on cultural identity. Their intervention was significant as they brought into question the shifting meanings of truth and agency into the discourse of development and identity. Questioning the changes that are rapidly changing their environments, Michael Tsegaye, Berhanu Ashagrie, Mehret Kebede and Mulugeta Gebrekidans presented provocative works that depicted the very nature of modern existence in Addis Ababa and its implications. Raising multilayered ethical and philosophical questions, artists challenged the genesis of the city’s social and cultural lives in its unmediated embrace to the promises of modernity. Curated by Dr. Elizabeth W Giorgis, Addis Ababa the Enigma of the ‘New’ and ‘Modern’ challenged the contemporary social and political phenomena of development. The artists in this exhibition also urged the contemporary African art platform to connect experiences of diverse critical projects of various regions of Africa where these can contribute to larger arguments.
Olafur Eliasson– -Time Sensitive Activity– –
February 2015 to May 2015
በጊዜ ላይ ጊዜ (Time-sensitive activity), that opened at the Modern Art Museum, Addis Ababa, on 26 February, 2015 presented an exciting array of artworks by the internationally acclaimed Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Curated by Elizabeth W. Giorgis, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the region featured works revolving around concepts like light, orientation, mirroring, and ephemerality – topics that have informed Eliasson’s practice for years. The show brought together outstanding new works, such as Life of a planet; Crystal nebula; Addis compass; and The complete sphere lamp, a series specifically developed and produced in Ethiopia; with a selection of seminal older works, including Colour space embracer, 2005, and Yellow corridor, 1997. በጊዜ ላይ ጊዜ (Time-sensitive activity) offered an insightful glimpse into the physicality of Eliasson’s artworks and their incredible ability to transcend conventional perceptions. Through a simple query of what it means to be a subject in a specific context, Eliasson challenged visitors to the exhibition to be perceptive of things they usually took for granted. Eliasson presented visitors with artistic concepts and practices that emphasised the centrality of creativity, poise agency in the creation of images, and are reflective and constitutive of the visitors’ environment. The exhibition came about through Olafur Eliasson’s long-term engagement with Ethiopia and, in particular, the city of Addis Ababa, a relationship that has intensified over the last decade.
Emeka Ogboh
PLAYBACK: The African Union 20 To 20.000 Hz
November 4–30, 2016
The exhibition PLAYBACK. The African Union: 20 to 20,000 Hz gives insight into the working process of the sound artist Emeka Ogboh for a site specific project at the African Union. Ogboh won the competition to propose an artwork for the Julius Nyerere Peace and Security Building, the new building at the African Union in Addis Ababa.
The exhibition presents a series of sound installations that engage with the past and present of the Association of African States. Ogboh based the exhibition on his comprehensive research in various audio archives. He juxtaposes historical speeches recorded by the Ethiopian radio network on the occasion of the founding ceremony of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 with recitations of the African Union’s anthem translated into various African languages, newly arranged vocal compositions and sound recordings.
Emeka Ogboh creates a dynamic archive of interwoven voices, songs, sounds and thoughts that echoes the African Union’s motto “unity in diversity” and explores its guiding principles and visions within a Pan-African context. The title refers to the range of frequencies audible to the human ear and emphasises the act of listening. The artist reflects on the significance of words and language, the intimacy of personal encounter and the role of the radio in shaping collective memory and an institution’s cultural legacy.
Christina Werner, curator of the exhibition
“Emeka Ogboh creates an auditory time capsule of this particular moment in African history, when Pan-Africanism played a distinct role in shaping continental identity. The exhibition tells a story – a story that is not simply lifted from the sepulchre of the archives, but an African story in the making.”
Elizabeth Giorgis, director of the Modern Art Museum: Gebre Kristos Desta Center
