Theo Eshetu

MOMENTUM
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Theo Eshetu
Theo Eshetu was born in London 1958, and grew up in Addis Ababa, Dakar, Belgrade
and Rome. He now lives and works in Berlin, having originally arrived on a DAAD Fellowship. Forging a hybrid language to merge practices of video art and documentary
filmmaking, Eshetu explores perception, identity, and notions of the sacred through
electronic time-based media and optical devices and effects. He draws from anthropology, art history, scientific research, and religion—Catholic, African, Muslim, Buddhist—to
explore clashes and harmonies of human subjectivity between world cultures in the
global context. Though essentially conceptual, Eshetu’s work is often focused on cultural displacement, and is always grounded in compelling aesthetic components, often
achieved through fractal repetition, such as kaleidoscopic mirroring, multi-screen projections, or mosaic-like patterning of images. His solo exhibition at the DAAD Gallery
in 2014 featured The Return of the Axum Obelisk, (2009), which chronicles the repatriation of a monumental war trophy from Rome to Ethiopia. Unlike most monuments that
are built to consolidate and commemoration a given event, the exceptional characteristic of the Axum obelisk has been its unique capacity to change significance with the
course of its long history and the successions of empires, with new meanings ascribed
to the obelisk within every cultural context it has physically and conceptually inhabited.
Solo and featured Shows
2014 Transform. Artists Beyond Film, Theo Eshetu
Tate Britain, London
The return of the Axum Obelisk
DAAD Gallery, Berlin
2013 Cinemafrica in Cineteca
Retrospective, Cinema Trevi, Rome
2011 Circus Maximus
Video Projection for a concert by Alvin Curran,
Integra Festival, Royal Danish Conservatory and Moderna Música festival, Centro del Carmen, Valencia.
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ART AT WORK pavilion VISIONARY AFRICA
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
CARMEN IN FINE
video theatrical performance by Massimo Verdastro
2010 Brave New World
Museum of African Art, The Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC
2009 The Return of The Aksum Obelisk
UNESCO Head Quarters Paris and FAO Head Quarters Rome
Ars & Navis
Arsenale di La Spezia. Italy
2008 Retrospective IN VIDEO
Festival Milano
I Racconti del Mandala
Teatro Colosseo Rome
Teatro Civico di Carrara
Five For Monk Video & Dance St Stevens
Theatre w. Roberta Garrison
2007 Buio in Sala
Sala Principe dei Piemonti, Viareggio
Made In Italy, Retrospective Theo Eshetu
Filmstudio Rome Featured Artist
South of the Other
The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar Poughkeepsie, USA
2006 Meditation on African Light
Baltimore Museum of Art, USA
2005 Africanized, retrospective The videos of Theo Eshetu
Padova, Verona and Bari
2004 Films of Theo Eshetu
Presented at BAM Cinemateque, New York
Monografia Elettronica
Zo cultural Centre, Catania
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Special Event presentation of Body and Soul
Venice Film Festival
2003 Blood
Museo Laboratorio dell’Università La Sapienza, Rome
Digital Africa at Electronic Arts Intermix/
Dia Foundation/African Film Festival
New York, USA
2002 Africanized
Presented at the 58th Venice Film Festival
1999 Brave New World
MACRO (Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea), Roma
1998 La nascita di Dioniso (installation)
Museo de arte italiano, Lima (Perù)
1996 University of Addis Abeba
Dept. Of Social Anthropology
1995 Retrospective at Arcipelago 3
Osservatorio sul cinema Italiano, Cinema Savoy, Rome
Il gatto e la volpe
Galleria Pio Monti, Rome
1994 Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
Nice, France
Chef Bien Resistes
Museum of Contemp. Art, Arezzo
Mass Memory
50° Venice Film Festival, Venezia
Arte & Jeans, Minimi rilievi
Passage de Retz, Paris
Mill Valley Film Festival
San Francisco, USA.
La Nascita di Dionisio
Galleria Cesare Manzo, Pescara
1993 Museo del Cinema, Torino
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Zapping
Galleria Nova, Rome
1992 ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts
London, UK
Videodistorsioni
Sulmonacinema, Italia
Artel
Galleria Comunale, Cagliari. TER Int. Exhibition of Cont. Art, Termoli.
1990 Il Luogo della complessità
Museo Laboratorio dell’Università La Sapienza, Rome
1989 Studio D’ars, Milan
1987 Monitors
Galleria MR/Goethe Institute, Rome.
Video Art Italiana
Galleria Civica, Monza
1985 Video Wall installation at Saint Louis
Music City, Rome
1983 The Portrait part One
New International Gallery, Rome
Group Shows, Video e Film Festivals
2014 Fragments of Empires
MOMENTUM Berlin & .CHB Collegium Hungaricum Berlin
Inventer le possible, Une vidéothèque éphémère
Jeu de Paume, Paris
Travelling Communiqué
Museum of Yugoslav History (MYH), Belgrade
The return of the Axum Obelisk
Millerntor Gallery, FC St.Pauli, Hamburg
in collaboration with MOMENTUM Berlin
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2013 After Year Zero, Geographies of Collaboration since 1945
HKW, Berlin
IkonoTV On Air Festival
International videoart Festival broadcast on livestream
2012 Agency of Unrealized Projects
DAAD Galerie, Berlin
CORPO ELECTRONICO
Complesso monumentale del San Giovanni, Catanzaro
AFRICA RISING
Cloitre des Billettes, Paris
Singolarità mobili che abitano uno spazio nomade
Casa dei teatri Villa Doria Pamphilj, Rome
2011 VENICE BIENNALE, L’Arte Non è Cosa Nostra
Arsenale di Venezia, Padiglione Italia, Venezia
Cinema e Diversità Culturale
Palladium, Rome
Eyes
Asiatica Film Mediale, MACRO Testaccio, Rome
ROMA
Festival di Video Art Roma
2010 Roma Film Festival
Casa del Cinema Rome
MACRO Video Drink
Curato da MM Gazzano, MACRO, Rome
CAOS II
Curato da Rafaelle Gavarro Isola di San Servolo Venezia.
EVENTS OF THE SELF, Portraiture and Social Identity
Curated by Okwui Enwesor
The Walther Collection
Neu Ulm Germany
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GEO-Graphics, a map of art practices in Africa past and present
Curated by Koyo Kouoh, David Adjaye,
BOZAR Pallais Des Beaux Arte, Brussels
The Tropics
curated by Alfons Hug, The Jim Thompson Art Center Bangkok
African Film Festival
New Museum, New York
Look At Festival
Fondazione Ragghianti, Lucca
Festival Archipelago
Rome
2009 The Tropics
IZIKO National Gallery of South Africa Cape Town
Message in a Bottle
Theater performance at Arsenale di La Spezia
AFRICA REFLECTED
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Non Angli Sed Angeli: a Pilgrimage a Mission
Venerable English College Rome
Fish Eye
Cinema L’ Aquila Rome
2008 Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
Memphis, USA
The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Die Tropen Views from the middle of the globe
Martin Gropius-Bau. Berlin
2007 Equatorial Rhythms
Stenersen Museum, Oslo.
Snap Judgments
Miami Art Central, USA
National Gallery of Canada
Ottawa/Canada
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Museo Tamayo
Mexico City, Mexico
OS TROPICOS
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro
2006 SNAP JUDGMENTS
ICP International Centre For Photography, New York
On Air Videos from Italy, Milano
Electro Shock-30 Years of Italian Video Art
Guangdong Museum of Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Peking.
c/o Careof Milan
Codes of Culture Video art from 5 Continents, Argentina
Video in onda dall ‘Italia In Loop
Brancolini Grimaldi Gallery, Florence
2005 AFRICA REMIX Contemporary Art from The African Continent
The Hayward Gallery, London
Presentation of Body and Soul
MACRO, Videoteca, , Rome
2004 Living For the City, installation
Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
The Creation Trilogy
Sulmona Film Festival
On Air
Galleria Comunale di Arte Contemporanea, Montefalcone
2003 Europalia
FNAC, Bruxelles
Museo Laboratorio di Arte contemporanea
La Sapienza, Roma
Video Zone Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv Cinemateque
Museum of Modern Art
Video Zone Selection Shijiazhuang Museum China
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Art Is Easy
In Tour with Fluxus Show, Hommage to Charlotte Moorman, USA
2002 Net Image Live video VJ contest
Milano, Italy
PRIX ITALIA
Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Italy
2001 Museum of African Art
New York
Ways To A Void
Palazzo Degli Esposizioni, Roma
Electro Shock 30 years of Italian Video Art
Acquario Romano and MACRO, Roma
2000 Trans Africana (video installation)
Chiesa Di San Giorgio, Bologna
Cinema Ferrovia
Udine, Italy
INPUT 2000
Halifax, Canada
The New York African Film Festival
Lincoln Centre, New York, USA
Brooklyn Museum of Art
New York, USA
1999 Festival del Cinema Africano
Milano, Italy
Visibilità Zero
Goethe Institute, Rome
Golem Video Festival
Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Torino
Sithengi
Cape Town, South Africa
Lavori In Corso
MACRO, Roma
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1998 In-video Milano
Festival di Cinema Africano, Milano
Dublin Film Festival
Fespaco/Input
Ouagadadougou, Burkina Faso
Vues D’afrique
Quebec, Canada
WWVF
Amsterdam Holland
Incontri sul Video
La Spezia, Italy
Balafon ‘98 Film Festival
Bari, Italy
Istituto Giapponese di Cultura, Roma
1997 University of Addis Abeba, University of Berkeley California, USA
Pesaro Film festival, Pesaro
Autheur film Festival Belgrade
Mill valley Film Festival
Mill Valley, CA, USA
NFT London Film Festival
Video Art Plastique, France
1996 Riciclart
Art and Recycling at the Slaughterhouse, Rome
Kind of blue
Jazz film festival, Milano
1995 Preserviamoci, Rome
Art & Film Festival, Bratislava
La Città Ideale
Fiumara d’Arte, Sicily
Artisti per Opening
American Academy, Rome
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AFRICANA
Sala Uno, Roma
Pandaemonium London Festival of Moving Images
ICA, London
Un anno Italiano in video
Superstudio, Milano
Arcipelago
Cinema Augustus Rome
Inverso sud
AversaFilmFestival 1996, Aversa
Recycle Mattatoio, Roma
Art For All
Pallazzo Braschi, Rome
Workshop “Arte elettronica e Linguaggi televisivi”
RAI, Rome
1994 Opera Stabile, Roma
Mondi Virtuali
Sala Umberto, Rome
Dov’é il Video
Museo Lab. di arte contemp. La Sapienza, Rome
Video les Beaux Jours
Stasbourg, France
Goteborg Int. Film Festival, Sweden
Deutscher Videokunstpreis 1994
ZKM, Karlsruhe
1993 Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin
I.ME.RE.C. Marseille
INPUT 93
Bristol, UK
In-Video
Aiace, Milano (also in 1994 ‘98 ’01)
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Da Sodoma a Hollywood
Torino Gay Film Festival, Torino
Video les Beux Jour
Strasbourg, France
Museo dell Cinema
Torino, Italy
TTVV
Festival of video and Theater, Riccione, Italy
Anteprima
Concorso Gabbiano D’oro, Independent film fest Bellaria, Italy
Edinburgh Film Festival
Scotland
Xenografia
The Venice International Biennale of Art, Venezia
2emme video week
Geneva
Ondavideo
Pisa, Italy
Prix Italia, “Il teatro in televisione”
Rome
Peter Greenaway & Theo Eshetu
Filmladen Kassel, Germany
INPUT
Bristol, UK
1992 Berlin Video Fest 92
Berlin (also 1993)
Promo Image Festival
Pala Expo, Rome
7th Australian int. film Festival
Sydney
ARTEL Electronic Media In Visual Arts In Italy
Galleria Comunale D’Arte, Cagliari, Italy
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Festival dei Due Mondi
Spoleto, Italy
Melkweg
Amsterdam
London Film Festival
Museum of Moving Images, London
ICA, Institute of contemporary Arts, London
Cinema Indipendente Italiano, Berlin
Video Teatro ‘90
Expo 92, Seville, Spain
Videodistorsioni
Sulmona Cinema, Italia
Goethe Institutes in Latin America
European video art in the 90ies
Festival of poetry and image, Dense, Denmark
1991 Video Arte Italiana
Eventi, Italian Cultural Institute, Madrid
Theo Eshetu/Alexander Hahn
Swiss Cultural Institute, Rome
1990 Italian Cultural Institute
Rio de Janerio, Brazil
1989 Televisions Melbourne Lygon Arts Festival
Melbourne, Australia, (also 1990)
Video Bienal
Lubijana
Festival de Video Musical
Victoria Gasteiz
Video Art Plastique
Herouville Saint-Clair (also in 1990, ‘93)
Studio D’Ars
Milano
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1988 MIPCOM
Cannes (also in 1990, ‘92)
Art for Africa
Goteborg Konstmuseum, Goteborg
Fukui International Video Biennale
Fukui, Japan (also in 1989)
Manif. Int. Video & TV
Montbeliard, France
European Media Arts Festival, Experimentalfilm Workshop
Osnabrùck, RFT
AVE
Arnhem, Holland (aslo in 1989)
1987 Fest Rio
Rio de Janeiro (also in 1988)
Video CD 87
Lubijana
Kunst for Africa
Sonja Henies-Onstads, Oslo
Filmer a tout prix
Bruxelles; Ars Elettronica, Linz (also in 1989)
International Art Show for the End of World Hunger
Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, Minnisota, USA
World Wide Video Festival
The Hague, (also in 1987, ‘88, ‘89, ‘92,’99)
Input
Granada, Spain
Point ‘87
Beaubourg, Paris
Videonale
Bonn
Europe Copyright
Beaubourg, Paris
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Festival Video Arte
Messina (also in 1989, ‘1991)
Electrovisions
Tokyo, Japan
1986 Festival di Camerino
Camerino, Italy
Prato-Expo
Fortezza da Basso, Florence
Tre volte video, Rome.
Montecatini Film & Video Festival
1985 Festival du Noveau Cinema
Montreal, (also in 1989, 1992)
Film-Maker
Milano (also in 1988 and 1990)
EU-Video
l’Immagine Elettronica, Bologna
Espace lyonaise d’Art Contemporaine
Lyon, France (also in 1987)
Teleconfronto
Chianciano Terme, Italia
1984 Video Art
Locarno, (also in 1985, ‘86 ‘87, ‘89, ‘90 ‘92, ‘95, ‘96 ‘99)
U-Tape
Palazzo dei Diamanti, Center of Video Arte, Ferrara (also in 1987, ‘89, ‘90)
1982 Festival Cinema Giovanni di Torino
Italy (also in 1987, 1989 and 2000)
Salso Film & TV Festival
Salsomaggiore (also from 1983, al 1989)
Video Roma 1982/1983
Rome
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Prizes and Awards
2012 DAAD
Berliner Kunstler Programm in Visual Arts
2010 Visionary Africa
Art at Work residency in Ouagadougou, BOZAR Brusssels
2008 Presentation at the Joburg Art Fair
Goethe Institute, Cape Town
2007 Presentation at the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar
Vassar University, New York
2005 Award of Merit at the Verona Film Meeting
Verona, Italy
2002 Best Biographical Documentary for “Dialogue with Yves Klein”
At the Asolo Art film Festival
Fellowship
At the Civitella Ranieri Centre
2001 The Best of INPUT
At ITVS, San Francisco
1999 Candidate for Best Documentary
at the Pan African Arts and Culture Festival Los Angeles
for “Blood is not Fresh Water”
Second prize for “Blood is not Fresh Water”
At the Int. African Film Festival, Milano
Award of merit at the African Film Festival of Verona
Prix du Conseil de L’Europe for “Blood Is Not Fresh Water”
Locarno Video Art Festival
1995 Special presentation of “Mass Memory”
At the Venice Film Festival
1994 Inauguration Video with “Travelling Light”
At the Mill Valley Film Festival
1993 First Prize for “Travelling Light”
At the Berlin Video Festival
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1992 Award of merit for “Travelling Light”
Festival dei Due Mondi, Spoleto, Italy
1989 Oscar Signorini Prize for “Nativity”
Awarded in Milan by Pierre Restany
1988 Award of merit at the 2nd video Biennale of Fukui, Japan
1987 Prize of the jury for “Questa é Vita”
At Salso Film &TV festival
First prize Film-Maker Milan
for “Questa é Vita” and “L’altro Mondo”
Third Prize for “L’altro Mondo”
At U-Tape, Palazzo dei Diamanti,
1986 First prize at U-Tape for “Questa é Vita”
Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara
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