Ethiopia’s contemporary art scene has grown through private galleries, artist collectives and festivals despite punishing import taxes and little state support, artists and gallerists in Addis Ababa told artnet News in June 2019.
Melaku Belay’s Fendika group performing in Addis Ababa, December 2017 (Ninara, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0) [file photo]
Addis Fine Art, co-founded by Mesai Haileleul and Rakeb Sile, opened its main space in Addis Ababa in January 2016 and a project space in London in October 2016. Other landmarks include Addis Foto Fest, which photographer Aida Muluneh founded in 2010 as East Africa’s first international photography festival, and the Zoma Museum, which opened in April 2019.
Commercial galleries are still few. Asni Gallery, which Konjit Seyoum founded in 1996 and which promoted a younger generation of artists, closed in 2018. To fill the gap, painter Dawit Abebe and nine fellow graduates set up the Habesha Art Studio collective in 2001 to share resources and invite collectors to exhibitions. Artist Leikun Nahusenay has lived, worked, taught and sold his art in the basement of the Guramayne Art Center for 18 years.
Taxes are the main complaint. Rakeb Sile said paper, ink and paint are treated as luxury imports and can be taxed at up to 500 percent, and there is nowhere in the country to print archival photographs. Because tax law does not distinguish artists from manufacturers and retailers, galleries must withhold 30 percent of an unregistered artist’s share for the government, against 2 percent for artists registered as companies. Mesai said 99 percent of artists are not registered, so most sales happen informally.
Many graduates of the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design at Addis Ababa University, the country’s only art school, leave Ethiopia to try to make a living abroad, Mesai said.
Some things have eased. Photographer Eyerusalem Jiregna said street photography once required a permit and could lead to arrest, but she could now take pictures freely. In June 2019 Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited the Alle School, the first such visit by a national leader in 46 years, artnet reported, and he has also toured Zoma.
Zoma, built as a tribute to Ethiopia’s indigenous architecture, was founded by Meskerem Assegued with artist Elias Sime and was paid for entirely with the founders’ own money, Meskerem said. Melaku Belay, founder of the Fendika Cultural Center, said the government was starting to look at art and had at least not made artists use their work for propaganda.
Sources: artnet News