A Video-Art Exhibition in Germany by Ethiopian Curator Meskerem Assegued

Published by Tadias Magazine September 29th, 2014 in Art and Featured. 0 Comments

Curated 

by Meskerem Assegued the show at the Dresden State Art Collections museum in Dresden, Germany (October 17, 2014 to January 4, 2015) also features work by Ethiopian artist Abel Tilahun.Tadias MagazineBy Tadias Staff
Updated: October 1st, 2014
New York (TADIAS) – A video-art exhibition
by Ethiopian anthropologist and curator Meskerem
 Assegued, Founder and Director of Zoma Contemporary
 Art Center in Addis Ababa, opens this month at
Germany’s Dresden State Art Collections 

(Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) — one of the ol
dest museum and cultural institutions in the world. The show dest museum and cultural institutions in the world. The show entitled “Curv

ature of Events” is an analysis of European art history as interpreted by 

contemporary video artists, including Ethiopian-born animator Abel Tilahun 

who teaches at American University in Washington D.C.

“The exhibition is a window into the way Renaissance, Baroque and Romantic 

artists depicted their society and how artists of our time interpret that perception

 relating it to the present,” the museum announced. “The curator’s selection and 

interpretation of the pieces is influenced by a different cultural background than the 

artists who created them. The curator invited three video artists to look at the selected 

works and to choose those that interested them most. The video artists used modern

 media to create a contemporary reaction to art from an earlier time.”
In addition to Abel Tilahun the other artists featured in the exhibition include Gunter

 Deller of Germany and Barbara Lubich from Italy. The museum notes that Mesk

erem came up with the idea for “Curvature of Events” during a visit to Dresden

 (sponsored in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Sub-Sahara Africa) to do research 

and to develop a concept for an exhibition there. The video display is based on pieces 

she selected from the permanent collections at the Old Masters Gallery and the 

Albertinum dating from the mid-1500s to the early 1900s but excluding the last 100 

years from 1914 to 2014.
Meskerem has worked with several prestigious art festivals including Venice Bien

nale (2007), Dak-Art Biennale (2004), as well as organizations such as the Smithso

nian National Museum of African Art and Santa Monica Museum of Art. “Meskerem 

Assegued’s curatorial career goes back over twenty years,” states the press release.

 “During the last sixteen years she has curated several exhibitions in Europe, Africa 

and North America. She is interested in contemporary artistic expressions that deal 

with historical and socio-cultural contexts. She believes all social issues are relevant 

everywhere regardless of socio-political, socio-economic and geographical differences.”