African Union & LELA Art Gallery
January 25-29, 2012

Commissioned by the European Commission and BOZAR, Brussels, FACE2FACE features recent works by Tewodros Hagos, Tamrat Gezahagne, Mulugeta Tafesse, Mulugeta Gebrekidan, Michael Tsegaye, Ermias Kifleyesus & Behailu Bezabih.

EACH / OTHERNESS
by Leo LEFORT

The curator is like an unprofessional acupuncturist who inserts needles while not knowing if they will heal or cause pain.
Pier Luigi Tazzi, The Good Shepherd, Bangkok Post, 11/01/12.

Engaging in the contrapuntal phenomenon of vacuity, FACE2FACE has been conceived as an open multilayered dialogue between audiences, artists, institutions, action and momentum. Upon the invitation to'invade' the ruin/pavilion and its itinerant laboratory, conceived by visionary architect David Adjaye and independent curator Simon Njami, this exhibition participates supremely to the incremental platform, by opening a space for seven Ethiopian contemporary artists. Based in Addis or working in Belgium, their works meet in this informal space and collide, offering visual responses in there own singular manner to the'absolute question'.

Under the cosmopolitan current trends and the confusing zones of tensions impacting both the real world and its virtual extensions, it felt important to them to seize hold of this room as an ultimate attempt to face the audience with images that matters. The Trojan horse under consideration is emblematic as well as symbolic, allowing the artists to ostensibly perform some innocuous functions in the compound of the new gem of Alem Bekagne: the monumental head office of the African Union. May this needle inserted into the restless body of The Capital of Africa, be a means of continuing the discussion and debates on eachotherness, but also be a useful pedagogical tool and reference on a complex, yet vibrant scene.