About

Please join us for the opening reception of Endale Desalegn's first solo exhibition with David Krut Projects, New York.

To mark the end of Endale Desalegn's first solo exhibition at David Krut Projects in New York, Mebrak Tareke will give a talk about the tension between God and money in Ethiopia today. She will make close reference to Trip to Mount Zuqualla, a video installation by Theo Eshetu on a pilgrimage to an extinct volcano on the outskirts of Addis Abeba; her emotional trip to the highlands of northern Ethiopia in January and April 2015, which then led to a fascinating studio visit with Endale Desalegn in Addis Abeba. Mebrak will also discuss her curatorial practice in as far as it relates to ritual, mysticism, the rupture of time and place, in particular. Mebrak Tareke is a writer, editor, curator and an independent media/communication professional. She was born in Addis Abeba. She has written for Under The Influence magazine, Another Africa, Kilimanjaro, Contemporary And on art, politics and culture. She is particularly interested in exploring the aesthetics of memory, loss, longing and trauma through video, photography, sound, performance and installation, its deeply visceral iterations, within an anthropological framework. Mebrak, who has been living between Brooklyn, Europe and the Horn of Africa, is also co-founder of TURF, a curatorial project that explores the arbitrary notion of Africana in the digital age, its ebbs and flows and the myths surrounding human identity. In the past, Mebrak has curated at Artsy, cutlog NY and Spring Break Art Show. She is also on the advisory committee of AFRICA’SOUT!, which advances radical change for the sexual rights of LGBTQIs of African descent, through art and activism. Mebrak holds a Master of Sciences in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics (2001) and a Bachelor of Arts in Modern European Studies from University College London (2000).