Art Moves Adrica – Mobility & Touring in East Africa 2012

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Country-Specific Information
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4.4 Ethiopia
Infrastructure for
the visual arts
The visual arts scene in Addis Ababa is quite
large. Practically all of the artists are graduates
of the University’s Fine Art school, which they
hold in high esteem, regularly attending events
and exhibitions there, using it as a meeting
place and often returning to teach. There are
now three new art colleges (Abyssinia, Enlightenment
Academy and TMS College), which
provide some competition. The quality of the
training provided at the Art School is high, with
excellent courses in painting and printmaking.
While the training offered is at present fairly traditional
in nature, they are working on adding
contemporary theory to the curriculum. Graduating
artists often set up their own collectives
to continue working together and to support
and critique one another. Examples include
Netsa, Habesha, 5 Artist Studio and NAS.
The Ethiopian press covers art events
regularly but does not know how to write seriously
about art. Local radio covers art events
and newspapers such as Arts Happening and
Arts have weekly art pages. The private magazines
cover art. For example, there was an
excellent 5-page article on Netsa in Diplomat
Magazine in February 2012. The free monthly
paper What’s Out! Addis features art events.
The Ethiopian government does not
offer any support to artists. Artists are taxed for
their studios as if they were shops. The recentlyappointed
Ethiopian Visual Artists Association
hopes to begin a dialogue with the Ministry
to improve some of these misunderstandings.
Artists have been forced to buy machines
to register their takings every day. They are
gathering information on artists’ working
methods in other countries to stop their government
from imposing these ridiculous systems
of taxation.
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Profile:
An important hub for the arts in Addis
Ababa is Netsa Art Village. Active
since 2008, it emerged out of the 2007
Abro International Artists’ workshop,
which was organized by Konjit
Seyoum with the help of artists from
Kuona Trust in Kenya and received the
support of the Triangle Arts Network.
Following this meeting, 17 artists took
over an outdoor space in a government-owned
park, building a canvascovered,
dome-shaped exhibition
space, storeroom, office and weekend
café. Their vision was to create a liv -
ing contemporary art museum. They
run children’s workshops as well
as an annual art festival that typically
brings in over 300 people. They are
open to non-member artists and are
focused on experimentation, in contrast
with most other spaces, which
focus on commercial art. They are
entirely self-funded, giving 40% of the
sales of their art to the village besides
the 10% that goes into government tax.
At the time of writing, their numbers
had shrunk to 11 members and they
were looking for funding.
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The Goethe Institut has been very supportive
of the arts for many years, working with curator
Meskerem Assegued who in turn works closely
with internationally renowned artist Elias Sime.
Among the Goethe-funded events is the annual
Fana Wogi competition, a very important event
for the country’s art scene. Designed for artists
under 35 years of age, it awards prizes
to seven artists each year. The winners are
selected by four Ethiopian judges. In 2011, 97
artists applied.