Addis Fine Art helping Ethiopian artists thrive at home and abroad
The gallery returns to Art Dubai with two of the country’s most promising painters
Sculptures of many shapes and sizes pepper the lush grounds of Addis Ababa’s Alle School of Fine Arts and Design at Addis Ababa University.
At first glance, their expressive human characteristics seem akin to those of artist Henry Moore. The sculptures exhibit a heightened level of skill and knowledge of abstraction surprising for university students who have not ventured outside Ethiopia.
For more than five decades, the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, the only art school in Ethiopia, has produced notable artists, painters, sculptors, printmakers and designers who have contributed to the country’s art community. Founded by the late Alle Felegeselam, one of Ethiopia’s prominent 20th-century artists, the school, like Ethiopia, has experienced many ups and downs.
Looking towards the future
But all of this is changing for the East African nation. Ethiopia is an example of Africa’s steadfast move to the future. According the latest International Monetary Fund Economic Outlook for Africa, Ethiopia is Africa’s fastest-growing economy for 2019. The country has a growing entrepreneurial middle class, a historic new rail line to its Djibouti neighbour and major developers in the UAE, such as Eagle Hills in Abu Dhabi, which is making its foray into the Ethiopian real estate market with the launch of La Gare, an enormous residential project in Addis Ababa where you will find more than 4,000 homes.
In Addis Ababa, Chinese developers are helping build an 80,000-seat mega-stadium, while on the Sudanese border, Italian engineers are assisting in the construction of the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa. There have been political changes too. In April of 2018, a promising young prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, was appointed, followed by the election of the country’s first female president, Sahle-Work Zewde, in October last year by members of the Federal Parliamentary Assembly.
Among several artistic initiatives is the new Zoma Museum, which will open to the public on Sunday. An eco-homage to Ethiopia’s indigenous architecture as well as a home to contemporary art, the museum has been in the pipeline for 25 years and aims to display the vernacular architecture of Ethiopia and other parts of the world, merging old and new art.
In 2003, artist Elias Sime transformed his house and art studio into ZCAC (Zoma Contemporary Art Centre), to create a new platform for art in the city. Co-directed by Sime and curator and anthropologist Meskerem Assegued, the site, now part of the Zoma Museum, was one that they had been working on for 20 years, slowly buying up land to offer the community a new space for art and culture.
Today, the museum has three galleries for video art, wall and floor installations and coin collections. There is also a library, gift shop, children’s centre, restaurant, amphitheatre and a garden area, ideal for large-scale art installations.
Giving Ethiopian artists exposure
Rakeb Sile and Mesai Haileleul, co-founders of Addis Fine Art, the country’s first commercial gallery with bases in Addis Ababa and London, are giving Ethiopian artists exposure at home and abroad. The gallery, which opened in Addis Ababa in January 2016, launched AFA Project Space, in London, specialising in 20th-century modern and contemporary African art.
“We believe building both the local and international markets simultaneously will be key to long-term growth and appreciation of art from this region,” Sile says. “Artists should have a strong collector base at home, and be part of the wider contemporary art discourse with their counterparts on the world stage.” By early 2020, the London gallery, which currently shares its space with art dealership Tafeta, will move to Cromwell Place, a first-of-its-kind exhibition space in Kensington, London.
Sile began collecting art in 2009. Every time she would return home to Addis Ababa to visit her grandmother she would visit local galleries and buy new pieces. She previously worked in business consulting and project management and on a visit to the first 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London six years ago and was surprised by the lack of Ethiopian artists. “There were no galleries or artists from my country,” she says.
“It made me think about the wider African contemporary art movement and how my collection fit into that discourse. Why is Ethiopian art not on the international art scene?”
A desire to give back
Her search for answers led her to Los Angeles where she met Mesai Haileleul, who had been living there for more than 30 years and championing artists from his homeland. He had not been back to Ethiopia in decades, mainly because of The Derg, or the Co-ordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police and Territorial Army that ruled the country from 1974 to 1987. “The first time I went back was in 1992,” Haileleul says. “The country had changed after 17 very hard years of communism. It had completely wiped out that beautiful memory I had of Ethiopia. A lot of people I knew either left or were killed.”
With the encouragement of Sile and the desire to give back, he returned home to open Addis Fine Art.
“Our mission was to be a local space with an international platform,” Sile says. Ultimately, the gallery’s aims are to promote their country’s rich artistic heritage and contemporary art to the rest of the world. Addis Fine Art has exhibited and worked with approximately 20 artists and represents 12, including names such as Girma Berta, Tizita Berhanu and Eyerusalem Jirenga, Tadesse Mesfin and Wosene Kosrof.
It will return for the second consecutive year to Art Dubai with two of the country’s most promising painters: Addis Gezehagn and his teacher, well-known modernist painter and veteran professor, Tadesse Mesfin. “The rich and ancient artistic history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church played a major role in shaping the style of early Ethiopian modernists,” Sile says.
“Soon after the transition from church-influenced art to modern expression occurred, Ethiopia went into more than two decades of Communist revolution starting in the early 1970s. This greatly inhibited artists’ ability to freely practise along with their counterparts across the continent and beyond.”
Fortunately, the persistent work of the oldest art school in the country, Alle Felege Selam School of Fine Art and Design, which opened during the 1950s and where Tadesse Mesfin has been teaching for the past 34 years, alongside the recent addition of new private art schools, Ethiopia is now experiencing a resurgence in artistic expression and appreciation.
“The art world’s interest in art from Africa is positive, albeit a belated development,” Haileleul says. “We believe that the African art discourse and global contemporary art movement would be incomplete without recognition of the immense amount, and quality of contemporary expression currently coming out of Ethiopia and East Africa as a whole.”
Facilitating a long-lasting dialogue
And that raises another question: how does one characterise the African art discourse? “We feel it’s important that each region of Africa is appreciated for its individual art historical context and aesthetic expression,” Sile says.
“In order to do that, strong local and/or international specialist galleries and practitioners must be present to engage the market. If not, the danger is that ‘African art’ will be seen as a homogenous aesthetic without the need for the market to explore its artistic diversity. We feel very strongly about collaborating and working with our colleagues in East Africa to champion the region because it is an under-represented yet rich space in modern and contemporary fine art.”
Artists in Ethiopia face structural obstacles that affect their earnings from the sale of their work.
“Firstly, there is a punitive income taxation system, which means there is no distinction between artists and manufacturers or retailers,” Sile says. “And so, they are subject to 30 per cent income tax on earnings. Compounding this is the high import taxes on basic items such as paint, brushes, archival paper, etc. The sector suffers because it is closed off to foreign direct investment, and this means that only local money can go into the development of the commercial sector. These policies must change, if Ethiopia is to see a step change.”
Addis Fine Art has been instrumental in fostering that change, but more needs to be done. “We didn’t let these obstacles stop us when we started, but now that we have been here for three years we know that these are major issues for growth,” Sile says. “Therefore, we are in the process of setting up an Association of Fine Art Galleries in Ethiopia with our colleagues in the sector to lobby for change and further support from the government.”
Ultimately, it is about facilitating a long-lasting dialogue at home and abroad through art. “Our desire is that our art will transcend the label and become sought after for its merit, hence sustaining itself by integrating in the mainstream global art market.” As Ethiopia looks ahead to its bright future so too does its art. (The National)
Speaking of Economic Hit Man
By Haile-Gebriel Endeshaw
There are some books that need to be read repeatedly. Francis Bacon said this in his own way. There are “some books to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested”. Yes, there are some books that should be read with diligence and attention.
Confession of an Economic Hit Man is one of the books that won great acclaim by many readers. Those of us who are interested to know about the economic sabotage being done on developing countries in the name of aid will have to take time to read this wonderful book. John Perkins who served as an Economic Hit Man (EHM) authored the book. Perkins said that it was very difficult for him to publish this book. First, he could not get daring publishers. A man at a publishing house, owned by a powerful international corporation, read the draft and said, “a riveting story that needs to be told”. But fearing for bad reactions from his big bosses, he advised Perkins to fictionalize it. But Perkins did not accept the advice… At last a courageous publisher, which is not owned by an international corporation, agreed to publish the book. According to a reader, “Perkins reveals shocking details of how United States Government and corporate America work hand in hand in maintaining a dominating role in international affairs by using greed and corruption to inhibit foreign governments from economic development”.
Who are economic hit men (EHMs)? Perkins tells us that EHMs are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources.
If a certain country is believed to possess a natural resource… like mineral oil, cobalt, diamond or uranium…, U.S. will take a closer look at that country. Let’s say that the given mineral rich country desires to expand its infrastructure. If the government of that country needs support or aid for the executions of these projects of infrastructure, U.S. will take no time before it sends off its economic experts that do researches. These experts are called Economic Hit Men (EHMs). The major tasks of the EHMs are to collect pieces of information to be submitted to World Bank (WB) or any other loan providing international organizations. The information should be convincing so that these organizations can approve the loans. Perkins was told by his immediate boss about his responsibilities. You “are paid to cheat countries around the globe out of billions of dollars. A large part of your job is to encourage world leaders to become part of a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial interests. In the end, those leaders become ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty. We can draw on them whenever we desire – to satisfy our political, economic, or military needs. In return, these leaders bolster their political positions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports to their people. Meanwhile, the owners of U.S. engineering and construction companies become very wealthy”.
Perkins recounts in his book the following: “Like our counterparts in the Mafia, EHMs provide favors. These take the form of loans to develop infrastructure – electric generating plants, high ways, ports, air ports, or industrial parks”. The loan given by WB “never leaves the United States; it is simply transferred from banking offices in Washington to engineering offices in New York, Houston, or San Francisco”.
The thing is that the poor country is purposely made to take a large amount of money which cannot be paid back by its own economic capacity. This is said to burden the country with debts it can never pay. When leaders of that country realize that they cannot pay back the loan, they will be forced to do whatever they are asked by America. “When this happens, then like the Mafia we demand our pound of flesh. This often includes one or more of the following: control over United Nations votes, the installations of military bases, or access to precious resources such as oil…” In this way “the global empire demands its pounds of flesh in the form of oil concessions.”
This is the reality we poor nations across the world have been confronted with. If EHMs are not successful in convincing or on the other way around compelling the leaders of that poor country to concede to the condition, the next step will be taken. The ‘jackals’ will emerge to do their assignments. These jackals are expected to do whatever is needed to overthrow or assassinate the leader of that country. If the assassination is aborted, a coup d’état will be orchestrated. At long last if the jackals failed to do their assignments, young Americans will infiltrate under the cover of peacekeepers to sweep the ‘dictators’ off their seats. Let’s see this in the following way…
What happened in Ecuador and Panama is a good example. America approached Ecuador and Panama by proposing loans for projects of infrastructure. The real objective was that the global empire needed canal ownership and oil exploitation from these countries. The two leaders of those countries, however, adamantly refused the extortion of their resources by the world super power. Yes, president Jaime Roldos of Ecuador and Omar Torrijos of Panama did not bow down for the demand of America. This means Perkins who was assigned as EHM in these countries failed to ‘convince’ them both. Now the lane seemed to have been left wide open for the jackals who were lurking around. The jackals marched along with words of refusal of the two leaders echoing in their ears… “Roldos warned all foreign interests, including but not limited to oil companies, that unless they implemented plans that would help Ecuador’s people, they would be forced to leave his country. He delivered a major speech at the Atahualpa Olympic Stadium in Quito and then headed off to a small community in southern Ecuador. He died there in a fiery airplane crash on May 24, 1981.”
This was a lesson given to the other strong leader of Panama, General Omar Torrijos, who insistently demanded America to relinquish the Panama Canal to its rightful owners. “Omar Torrijos… confessed to having nightmares about his own assassination; he saw himself dropping from the sky in a gigantic fireball. It was prophetic… Two months after Roldos’s death, Omar Torrijos’s nightmare came true; he died in a plane crash. There was a bomb in the small plane in which he was flying… It was July 31, 1981.”
The surprising thing is that “[f]or every $100 of crude oil taken from Ecuadorian rain forest, the [American] oil companies receive $75. Of the remaining $25, three-quarter must go to paying off the foreign dept. Most of the reminder covers military and other government expenses – which leaves about $2.50 for health, education, and programs aimed at helping the poor. Thus, out of every $100 worth oil torn from the Amazon, less than $3 goes to the people who need the money most, those whose lives have been so adversely impacted by the dams, the drilling, and the pipelines, and who are dying from lack of edible food and potable water.”
After Torrijos assassination, his successor, Manuel Noriega had strong attachment with U.S. But when he failed to renew license of the famous School of the Americas (of warfare training) located in the Canal Zone of Panama, Noriega was arrested following the bombardment of his country by the American army. Poor Noriega was flown to Miami and sentenced to 40 years of imprisonment. The entire world was stunned by this breach of international law to invade an independent country, mow down its defenseless people at the hands of the most powerful military force on the planet. Expressing the atrocious acts, Perkins says, “The U.S. army had prohibited the press, the Red Cross and other outside observers from entering the heavily bombarded areas [of Panama] for three days, while soldiers incinerated and buried the causalities.” The U.S. attack against Panama was reported to be “the largest air-borne assault on a city since World War II”.
We can read in this book how oil embargo crippled the American economy in the early 1970s and how U.S. took measures to kneel down Saudi Arabia, the major actor in this embargo… how Iraq was considered important to USA…why it was invaded… how Venezuela was saved by Sadam … how USA orchestrated coup against the democratically elected premier of Iran… Magnificent book to be read!
The writer can be reached at gizaw.haile@yahoo.com
