Patching Up Program

 PATCHING-UP is a multi-cultural, transnational project that includes a series of documentary projects addressing movement and migration. It involves interactive cross-cultural events and alternative presentations. The Patching-UP collaborative project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia will include field-research, workshops, dialog-meetings and an art exhibition. 

Events will be curated by Mekdes Shebeta, Hulu Studios and Agegnehu Adane, Director of Addis Ababa University, Ale School of Fine Art and Design.

THE DIALOG MEETING

Mekdes will arrange a Dialog-Meeting on the understanding of socially engaged art, working with communities, the challenges of painful memories, and the power of integrating contemporary art into daily life. She will also present her experimental video and text documentation about expectation and hospitality. The dialog-meeting and documentary presentation in Addis Ababa will be in Amharic. They will be documented by video and translated to English with subtitles.

“Dialog-Meetings” are a crucial feature to the Patching-Up documentation process. Formal interviews result in overly stiff responses but by using artwork as a starting point people behave more naturally. A conversational strategy that is rooted in art generates a documentary format that ensures a more compassionate arena for painful storytelling.

FIELD WORKSHOP INFORMATION

Invited artists will travel to rural areas of Ethiopia to conduct field-research with traditional craft artisans, the rural to urban migrants whose daily survival depends on their artistry and music. The Patching-Up field-research will involve independent projects between invited artists and artisans to create an open-ended cross cultural exchange, with art as a starting point for dialogs about migration and survival. Invited artists are encouraged to develop their own projects and types of social engagement with artisans. Photographic or video documentation of field-research is required. Findings will be shared at the final meeting with the other participants. Workshops can be held within Addis Ababa or nearby rural areas, in small groups or with individuals. Hulu Studio has organized for the guest-artists to travel to Sidamo or Ankober, and the Agena market in Gurage-Land.

EXHIBITION

Patching-UP will culminate in “OF MOVEMENT,” a group exhibition, with the theme of “Movement.” This collaborative exhibition will include documentary film from the workshop and participant artwork in the medium of their choice. “Of Movement” is open to personal interpretation. For example, it could involve physical movement from one place to other, personal journaling, spiritual awakening, physics, shifting geography, technological advancements, historical changes, and more.

PATCHING UP PROJECT DESCRIPTION: ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

January 5-23, 2019: 10-day workshop and 3-day exhibition

Project Coordinator & Artistic Director: Mekdes W Shebeta

Project Curator: Agegnehu Adane, Director Addis Ababa University, Ale School of Fine Arts and Design

Project Curator: Dawit Tesgaye, Creative Director/Founder of Hulu Studios.

Artist Participants include: student volunteers, artists from Hulu Studios, and international guest

artists.

ETHIOPIAN ARTIST PARTICIPANTS:

Yosefe Berhanu/ Artist, painting

Biruk Haile/ Artist, sculpture

Abenezer Girma / Artist, animator

Amanuel Workneh/ Artist, painting

Solomon Kifle/ Fashion Design

Dawit Tsegaye / Product Design

INTERNATIONAL ARTIST PARTICIPANTS:

Michelle Dussault: Artist, drawing

Rita George: Motivational speaker

Frans Jacobi: Artist, performance and installation

Gitte Sætre: Artist, dialogue based art, performance, photography, video and sound

Eden O, Shoro, Art Psychotherapist MA, HCPC, BAAT

SCHEDULE FOR PATCHING UP PROJECT: ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

January 5, 2019 - 1st meeting: Introductions and presentations of all artists.

LOCATION: Frank Addis Restaurant, Around Olompiya (map)

January 7 (Mon) - Social Events for Guest Artists: Gena Holiday Breakfast at Gashe Bekele’s house; Lunch and afternoon chilling at Muzie Awol’s.

January 8-10 - Field Workshop in Sidamo OR Ankober. 

Travel to the south for fieldwork sites with artisans. (open to invited participants)

January 10-11 - Studio visits and critiques with students from the Ale School of Fine Arts and Design and guest-artists.

LOCATION: University studios

January 11 (Fri) - 2nd meeting/seminar - (open to students and other guests)

Guest Artist Seminar (artist talks) 20-30 minute power point presentations by artists for students at The Ale School of Fine Arts and Design 

Brief Introduction by Mekdes (workshop overview and processes).

Introduction by Hulu Studios (members and gallery working system).

Presentations by Guest International Artists: (artists choose presentation style and content regarding their experiences, processes, content, ideas, or limitations as artists)

LOCATION: University Auditorium

January 12-14 - Field Workshop in Gurage-Land to coincide with Monday market day on 1/14/19.

January 15 (Tues) - Artists’ Seminar and Expressive Arts Workshop (12-15 invited artist participants)

Artists will share their findings and documentations from the field. At the end Eden Shoro will lead “Visual and Emotional Journaling: a Psychodynamic Approach to Immersive Arts Based Research,” for participating artists and curators after they return from field research. This is an intimate workshop geared towards the artists’ observations in the field, to collectively and visually document experiences, and to have closure with field work exposure. 

Approximately 1-hour. Details (TBD). LOCATION: Gallery.

January 16 or 17 - Mon or Thurs (TBD) - Eden Shoro will lead Art and Intuition (for students) an expressive art “experience” with art students at the Ale School of Fine Arts and Design. Connecting the Mind and Body Creatively - Encourages flexible and innovate thinking through active imagination, expression / projection and visual art making.

Location: Addis Ababa University, Ale School of Fine Arts and Design Fine Art and Design 

January 17-27, 2019 - EXHIBITION: On Movement

January 15-17, 2019 - INSTALLATION OF ARTWORK

January 17: 6 pm - public opening party with music and a DJ (TBD)

January 23: closed dialog-meeting at the exhibition space. In Amharic with English translation.

ARTIST BIOS

Michelle Dussault received her MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Tennessee in 2003. She also holds a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and African Studies from

Rhode Island College. Her seismographic drawings are a record of the bumpy experience of public transportation. Despite their topographical appearance these map-like drawings are impossible to navigate. From a seat on a Kenyan Matatu or a New Orleans Streetcar, from to camel-back to dog-sled, they simply chart the subtle vibrations of movement while lost. Recently this seismographic-drawing process has found its way into her fiction writing, as a vehicle for her protagonist to explore the world.

Rita George works with communities in analyzing, understanding and developing businesses. She is the Analysis and Business Development Director for Rian Services in Kenya and Four Motions in the UK.

Frans Jacobi is a visual artist (b. 1960). Lives and works in Copenhagen and Bergen. Jacobi works with performance, text and images. His performances and installations are often large scale scenarios with multiple participants addressing a range of political and societal issues. Using a kind of urgent aesthetics the temporality and presence becomes a point in itself. Jacobi, a professor in time-based media / performance at KHiB, Bergen Academy of Art & Design since 2012. He completed his PhD ‘Aesthetics of Resitance’ at Malmö Art Academy/Lunds University in 2012. In 2014 Jacobi established the artist-group SYNSMASKINEN. The group works as a platform for the artistic-research project 'SYNSMASKINEN: 7 fields of contemporary crisis' based at KHiB, Bergen Academy of Art & Design. Simultaneously SYNSMASKINEN works as a platform for various other projects. https://www.fransjacobi.net/about

Gitte Sætre is a multidisciplinary artist, working with dialogue based art, performance, photography, video and sound. Her work has been shown at Bomuldsfabriken, Oslo Kunstforening; House of Foundation as the collateral programme of Kochi Biennale, India; Media Impact, Moscow; Artic Artforum, Arkhangelsk; Komunitas Salihara, Jakarta; Kongernes Lapidarium, Copenhagen; XX1 Gallery, Warsaw; Pristine Galerie, Mexico, the WhiteBox in New York, Kunsthall 3.14 in Bergen, Bergen Kunsthall and KODE. https://www.gittesatre.com/about.html

Mekdes W. Shebeta uses her art in installation, performance and video to tell stories that investigate trauma and the complex aesthetics of poverty. Her quirky narratives are intended to highlight an overlooked reality, provoke curiosity and foster awareness. Her work gives voice to those who wake up every day on an unfinished journey. Her documentary style uses the natural voice of the immigrant in conversation, as opposed to the hard question and response of a formal

interview. Her use of ramshackle dwellings provides a home-like atmosphere to offset the austerity of the gallery setting. By encouraging participation she creates an inclusive environment that fosters cross-cultural exchange. Her deliberate use of the English language, amplifies immigrants’ varied speech patterns. Broken English is the language that has replaced many mother tongues. Socially engaged art can give voice to painful stories, by using a playful sensibility Mekdes hopes these difficult stories are not only told but that they are heard.

Eden ‘Ānibesa’ Shoro, Art Psychotherapist MA, HCPC, BAAT. 

Eden offers innovative arts based approaches to healing that inspire creativity and empowerment. Eden came to the field of art therapy by way of her international humanitarian work edenorfanos.org . She believes art can be a tool for social change, recovery / discovery and healing. As an artist Eden has exhibited her painting and photography in galleries across the USA and the UK. Her experience in the entertainment and fashion industry contributes to her dynamic skill-set. She has worked as an art director, special effects makeup artist, stylist and producer and has performed on stage in theatrical productions. Eden is passionate about the wellbeing of people who have been traumatized, stigmatized or socially disadvantaged and is committed to the powerful healing of Expressive Art Therapies. edenarttherapist.com 

Dawit Tsegaye earned his BA in industrial design in 2017 from Addis Ababa University, Ale School of Fine Arts and Design. He specializes in product design. His designs focus on public city products and urban solutions. He currently lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and works for Ethiopian Airlines as a UI/UX designer in the digital section. He designs mobile and web platforms, user interfaces and designs that interact with the user. Dawit is the founder and creative director of HULU Studio. He founded HULU fine arts and design studio in 2017 to work together with professional artists and designers.