By Oliver Duggan

The Sheraton Hotel in Addis Ababa will opened its fourth consecutive Arts of Ethiopia exhibition this week and thanks to the success of its predecessors, it already has a reputation as the must-see art event of the year.

The annual program, which began in 2008 with just a handful of artists and now seeks to portray a hugely varied and critically acclaimed pool of art from across the country, will run from 26th- 29th August in the luxurious five-star Sheraton’s Lalibela Grand Room. Entrance for anyone, from the artistic population of Addis to the hotel’s guests (40 of whom are flying in specially for the event), is completely free.

“As this is a show for the public, we are very keen on having as many people come as possible,” Omar Carrera, area director of sales and marketing at Sheraton Addis and the exhibition curator, told The Reporter. “Last year we had close to 16,000 people come through the show in four days and we want it to grow. That’s why there’s no charge and it opens from 10am to 10pm.”

The longer opening hours, which were introduced for the 2011 exhibit, is one of the ways the hotel is trying to encourage attendance. Last year, Omar explained, people were missing out because they couldn’t come during work hours. Now, with late night showings, they are looking to catch the desk-jockey art-loving crowd as well.

It isn’t difficult to understand the previous frustration of careerists. The Art of Ethiopia franchise has grown exponentially since its inception in 2008 and will this year host 43 of Ethiopia’s most prolific artists, exhibiting nearly 400 pieces collectively. But it is quality not quantity at the Sheraton. For them, it is the artists, their eclectic background and the rigorous acceptance process each has to go through to be in the show that will make Art of Ethiopia stand out from the crowd.

“The background [of the artist] is that we have three generations there. We have the senior ones, as well as the younger ones and those that fall in between,” explains Omar. “Because we had over 400 applications to be included in this year’s art show we had to vet them. The applications go through a several-step process and it takes about a year to put together.”

One such artist who was lucky enough to claim a coveted place, Gizachew Kebede, told The Reporter, “The exhibition is very important for every artist. It provides an essential experience to allow them to develop.” The abstract painter continued, “A chance of an art exhibition like this is unusual. It includes different artists, which means it includes my teachers, me, and my students. For me, because we are combined and working together, it is good for all of us.”

As Gizachew advocated, the art that will be portrayed in the Sheraton’s grand and luxurious ballroom - most of which are canvas and sculpture pieces - will be as unique in composition as the artists that created them. Abdurahman Mohamed Sherif, a veteran of the 2010 show and an artist’s showing next week, for example, completed a Masters in Fine Art at Berlin’s prestigious Staatliche Hoschule Fuer Bildende Kuenste before going on to exhibit in Belguim, the former Czech Republic, Nigeria, Russia, USA and other countries. Another, renaissance artist Zerihun Yetmgeta, is trademarked for his small scroll paintings based on weaver’s tools and now forms part of Addis University’s Fine Art faculty.

Alle School of Fine Arts, which many of those showing at this week’s event attended, is a particular supporter of the Art of Ethiopia exhibitions. Understandably so: thanks to money raised from the sale of art catalogues and paintings at the event, organizers at the Sheraton have been able to create the Sheraton Addis Art Endowment Fund, designed to reinvest in Ethiopia’s artistic community.

“It [Art of Ethiopia 2011] is designed to promote the arts and we also try to raise funds,” Omar explained to The Reporter. “We started the fund three years ago. The idea was to help support the artistic community, so we were looking around and the obvious choice was the School of Fine Arts; that’s where the majority of these students have come from. So we asked them to identify their needs and we’ll see what we can match.”

Match it they did. Thanks to the money raised from this, as well as the three previous events, the Sheraton has been able to purchase a lithography offset printing machine for the school, which will be installed in the next few months.

Omar continued: “It’s the second or third machine of its kind in Africa, so it’s kind of a big deal. For us to be able to support something like that is great because they produce some fantastic talent.”

As the event grows, the Endowment Funds managers will look for new and more dynamic ways to contribute to promoting Ethiopian art around the country, the continent and across the world. And with the seeming inevitable success of next week’s show it shouldn’t be too hard a task.

But for some, who weren’t lucky enough to be accepted this year, the show is bittersweet. One artist, who wanted to remain anonymous, told The Reporter he thought the exhibition was little more than an ‘art fair’. For him, the title, ‘Art of Ethiopia’, is a misnomer: “It doesn’t give the full picture of Ethiopian art,” he explained. According to him, many of the art works that are exhibited here are nominated and chosen with the concept of how much of it will be sold. “If the artist sold many art pieces in the previous year his involvement for next year is already secured,” he claimed.


However, the guests have so far left wide-eyed and with wide smiles from the Sheraton’s packed ballroom, and the organizers remain resolute. “We have been told it’s the show to be in and we’ve been told it’s the show to attend. We’ve noticed people have started designing for the show, and we’ve also seen a big change in the style of art and that’s exciting […] It’s going to be dramatic,” the exhibition’s curator, Omar, promised.

Source: EthiopianReporter