Robel Temesgen IN THE CLOSET⃣

 

We kindly invite our visitors to the solo show of Robel Temesgen

JEBENAS.

 

In these 19 pieces of jebenas*, Robel presents 10 x 8 cm paintings of Coffee pots. The ritual of making and drinking coffee has been an act for a collective of many cultures across generations. On the occasion of the Jebena series, especially made for the IN THE CLOSET⃣ , Temesgen attempts to look into the intimacy and ritual, both as a phenomenon of initiation and encounter. 

 

These paintings of Jebenas are amulets, the pocket prayers, and experiences in private. Thus the InTheCloset space becomes the Mise-en-scène for the intimacy and the conversation in secret. 

 

That intimacy and conversation of intimacy is the prelude to Temesgen's research that began in 2017. The artist worked with coffee pots and the relationship these pots hold to bringing people closer, or at least, together. The coffee pot project "Jebenas" follows up and continues on from Robel Temesgen's larger project titled "Adbar", the artistic study of spiritually embodied places of rituals and engagements. 

 

*Jebena is an Amharic word referring to clay coffee pots in Ethiopia.

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Born in 1987 in Ethiopia, Robel Temesgen is currently a PhD fellow in Artistic Practice at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. He have received MFA from Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art, University of Tromsø, Norway in 2015, and BFA in Fine Art (Painting) from Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, Addis Ababa University in 2010. He took part in several fellowships and residencies, Junge Akademie Program of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and IASPIS, Stockholm, the Swedish Art Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Art are to mention a few. Temesgen’s work has been widely exhibited in international platforms in solo and group shows including ARoS Museum, Aarhus (2021), Para Site, Hong Kong (2021), Kunsthall Oslo (2019), Portico Library, Manchester (2019), Circle Art Agency, Nairobi (2019), Addis Foto Fest, Addis Ababa (2018), Modern Art Museum, Addis Ababa (2018), Tiwani Contemporary Art Gallery, London (2018), Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2017), Marabouparken, Stockholm (2017), Nada Art Fair, Miami (2016), Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2016), Tromsø Kunstforening (2016), Tiwani Contemporary Art Gallery, London (2016), Kurant Visningsrom, Tromsø (2015), Addis International Video Art Festival, Addis Ababa (2015), Art Future/Future Signs, Riga (2015), RomeAfrica Film Festival, Rome (2015), Lumen Festival, New York (2015), Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2014) and Modern Art Museum/Gebre Kristos Desta Center, Addis Ababa (2013). Besides his studio projects, he works as a Lecturer at Alle School of fine arts and Design, Addis Ababa University. Temesgen currently lives and works between Oslo and Addis Ababa.