ODYSSEY?
Artist: Abel Tilahun
Curator: Meskerem Assegued
Venue: Alliance Ethio-Française
ARTIST STATEMENT: Odyssey? is an exhibition that captures the excitement and paradoxes of innovation. From the collapse of
information hierarchy in the digital age to the history of cinema and the moving image, the importance of“time” is a constant throughout the work. While the artist’s video work utilizes the dimension of time in the technical sense, his works across all media evoke a sense of displacement in time, timelessness, or a collapsing of the historical timeline. By combining visual cues that evoke the past, present, and future, he gives his audience a birds-eye view on both the gravity of the contemporary moment, as well as the continuity and patterns within human history. At the heart remains the intrinsic value of the human experience across time and space.
BIO: The multi-faceted artist Abel Tilahun works in video art, sound design, sculptural installation, and drawing. Abel has shown four solo shows: Blueprint (2007), A Generation Projected (2010), INTERFACE EFFECT (2014), and ODYSSEY? (2017). Notable among his group exhibitions is CURVATURE OF EVENTS, a video art exhibition curated by Meskerem Assegued and commissioned by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany. It was shown in Dresden in 2014 and at the National Museum of Ethiopia in 2015. Abel has held artist talks at Zoma Contemporary Art Center (Addis Ababa), Independent Curators International (New York City), the National Museum of Ethiopia, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Germany), Alle School of Fine Arts & Design (Addis Ababa), and Adams State University (Colorado). He is an adjunct professor at American University in Washington, D.C. Abel earned his BFA in Sculpture from Addis Ababa University’s Alle School of Fine Arts and Design in 2006. In 2010 he earned his master’s degree in Fine Arts from Adams State University in Colorado, U.S.A., where he was awarded the Cloyde Snook Scholarship.
Associated Events:
Artist Talk (Retrospective): January 5, 6 PM. Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in the Alliance
Ethio-Française Theatre)
Roundtable (Odyssey?): January 21, 6 PM. Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in the Alliance
Ethio-Française Gallery
Artist: Abel Tilahun
Curator: Meskerem Assegued
Venue: Alliance Ethio-Française
ARTIST STATEMENT: Odyssey? is an exhibition that captures the excitement and paradoxes of innovation. From the collapse of
information hierarchy in the digital age to the history of cinema and the moving image, the importance of“time” is a constant throughout the work. While the artist’s video work utilizes the dimension of time in the technical sense, his works across all media evoke a sense of displacement in time, timelessness, or a collapsing of the historical timeline. By combining visual cues that evoke the past, present, and future, he gives his audience a birds-eye view on both the gravity of the contemporary moment, as well as the continuity and patterns within human history. At the heart remains the intrinsic value of the human experience across time and space.
BIO: The multi-faceted artist Abel Tilahun works in video art, sound design, sculptural installation, and drawing. Abel has shown four solo shows: Blueprint (2007), A Generation Projected (2010), INTERFACE EFFECT (2014), and ODYSSEY? (2017). Notable among his group exhibitions is CURVATURE OF EVENTS, a video art exhibition curated by Meskerem Assegued and commissioned by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany. It was shown in Dresden in 2014 and at the National Museum of Ethiopia in 2015. Abel has held artist talks at Zoma Contemporary Art Center (Addis Ababa), Independent Curators International (New York City), the National Museum of Ethiopia, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Germany), Alle School of Fine Arts & Design (Addis Ababa), and Adams State University (Colorado). He is an adjunct professor at American University in Washington, D.C. Abel earned his BFA in Sculpture from Addis Ababa University’s Alle School of Fine Arts and Design in 2006. In 2010 he earned his master’s degree in Fine Arts from Adams State University in Colorado, U.S.A., where he was awarded the Cloyde Snook Scholarship.
Associated Events:
Artist Talk (Retrospective): January 5, 6 PM. Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in the Alliance
Ethio-Française Theatre)
Roundtable (Odyssey?): January 21, 6 PM. Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in the Alliance
Ethio-Française Gallery