Circuit Bending: Ethiopian art at a crossroads

[...] Addis Fine Art, a gallery with a presence in both London and Addis Ababa, was cofounded in January 2016 by Mesai Haileleul and Rakeb Sile, a Philadelphia-born Ethiopian. On the day I was at the space, a mixed-media show—beads, nails, and bronze figurative shapes on black wooden blocks—by the East German–trained artist and retired teacher Melaku Ayele was about to conclude. Ayele is now retired from his old job at the Ale School of Fine Arts and Design, an affiliate college of Addis Ababa University, and this show was, for many, a rediscovery of sorts: his comeback as a full-time artist.

 

Ayele is a near contemporary of Sime’s, even though their careers have had different trajectories. Commenting on Sime, Haileleul, who in 1974 fled the Derg regime to the United States, where he went on to run a gallery in Los Angeles until his relocation to Addis Ababa, told me: “Elias is known more abroad than at home even though he went to school here and his contemporaries are in their mid-careers, in their fifties.” Haileleul emphasized that Sime “is a known entity, don’t get me wrong, and well respected for his work,” but he wishes more artists received recognition at home. “But we are not there yet,” he added. Considering Sime and Assegued’s foray into Ethiopia’s public works scene and Ahmed’s patronage, including a donation of land in the Entoto Mountains, on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, where they are building yet another iteration of Zoma—a residency space, a restaurant, arts center, and amphitheater—perhaps that future is not far off.