Theo Eshetu
Cultural identities have never been fixed and defined but are created and molded through political projections, erected and destroyed by historical events, and have fluctuated with the displacement of cultural objects and the migration of populations; all of which seem to point to the impossibility of fixing identities in time, as their nature is to be in constant flux. We can only define the now, and the now is grotesque, uncertain, and burdened by the ghosts of the past. There is, however, also beauty in the present, a vitality for new justices, a search for new harmonies and—contrary to facile political tendencies—an acceptance and desire for hybrid states hitherto unknown.
Theo Eshetu will be presenting two video installations; Atlas Fractured (2017) accompanied by a series of photographic portraits, and The Slave Ship (2015).
Born in London (1958) to a Dutch mother and an Ethiopian father, Eshetu’s youth was marked by divergent multicultural contexts. After obtaining a degree in Communication Design from the North East London Polytechnic (1981), Eshetu spent most of his professional life based in Rome, where he soon establishing himself as a leading video artist. Since then, his work has been presented internationally: at documenta14 (2017), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LACMA (2016), the Shanghai Biennial (2016), the Goteburg biennale (2015) Tate Britain (London, 2014), the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2014), the Venice Biennial (2011, 2004), the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC, 2010), the New York African Film Festival (2010), and the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, Vassar University (2007), Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, 2006) among others.
He has participated in acclaimed international group- and solo-exhibitions, such as STADT / BILD –Xenopolis, Deutsche Bank KunstHalle (Berlin, 2015), Streamlines Deichtorhallen (Hamburg, 2015) Die Tropen: Views from the middle of the globe, Martin Gropius-Bau (Berlin, 2008), Snap Judgments, ICP International Centre for Photography (New York, 2006) and more, Digital Africa, Electronic Arts Intermix/Dia Foundation/African Film Festival (New York, 2003).
Eshetu’s work is represented in private and public collections worldwide, including Tate Britain (London), the National Museum of African Art, the Smithsonian Institute (Washington DC), the Baltimore Museum of Art, and The Walther Collection (Ulm/ New York ). He has been awarded numerous prizes, such as the DAAD Berliner Kunstler Programm in Visual Arts (2012), Visionary Africa, BOZAR Brusssels (2010), and the 1st Prize at the Berlin Video Festival (1993).