Articles
A Sneak Peek at This Year’s Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival Wa
Sharp Magazine | April 26, 2022
The Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival is officially set to launch its 26th edition in Toronto next month, and it’ll bring a diverse host of thought-provoking lens-based works from Canadian, Indigenous, and international artists to the city. The festival will encourage viewers to reflect on many of the world’s ongoing conflicts through exhibitions, site-specific installations, and commissioned projects at museums, galleries, and public spaces across Toronto. Read More…
Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition 2020: An exhibition about food, war and the World Food Programme
Nobel Peace Center
The Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition 2020 is a story about food and hunger as tools in war and conflict. The acclaimed artist Aïda Muluneh has made an exclusive photo series for the Nobel Peace Center. Read More..
Ballarat International Foto Biennale brings the world to Victorian city
ABC News | September 14, 2021
Sifting through 350,000 photographs randomly downloaded from the internet for an art installation, a visitor at a gallery found a photograph of his girlfriend.
The discovery flew in the face of Dutch artist Erik Kessels's intention for the work, now on display at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB), which was meant to embody the endless, largely meaningless flood of images most of us experience on a daily basis.
Ballarat International Foto Biennale brings the world to Victorian city
ABC News | September 14, 2021
Sifting through 350,000 photographs randomly downloaded from the internet for an art installation, a visitor at a gallery found a photograph of his girlfriend.
The discovery flew in the face of Dutch artist Erik Kessels's intention for the work, now on display at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB), which was meant to embody the endless, largely meaningless flood of images most of us experience on a daily basis.
Object of the Week: Distant Echoes of Dreams
SAMblog | February 4, 2022
What if you turned on the faucet in your bathroom or kitchen and no water flowed out? How far would you have to go to obtain enough water for your family’s needs for one day? How much do we take our immediate access to clean water for granted?
Aïda Muluneh : Water Life
Partners In Art
Partners in Art (PIA) is proud to present the Textile Museum of Canada’s exhibition Aïda Muluneh: Water Life. In partnership with Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, with additional support from the Aga Khan Museum. Curated by Sarah Quinton, Curatorial Director, the exhibition will be on view at the Textile Museum of Canada from April 27 – September 25, 2022.
Using Photography As A Driver Of Sustainability
Irish Tech News | January 24, 2022
Let’s answer the million-dollar question – Why is photography important?
Because it speaks, it communicates, it educates and it cultivates change. I am often asked this question and my answer remains the same always. Photography is not just a tool for artistic expression or documentation, it is a lot more than that. Photography has the power to raise awareness, to change the narrative thus inspiring people to take action, for instance, my work around ‘Water Life’ from 2018 addressed the plight of water access and its impact not only on society but also on women in rural regions, especially so in Ethiopia but also across Africa. Read More..
Engage, Advocate, Inspire and Empower – Using Photography As a Driver Of Sustainability
Africa.com | January 15, 2022
Let’s answer the million-dollar question – Why is photography important? Because it speaks, it communicates, it educates and it cultivates change. I am often asked this question and my answer remains the same always. Photography is not just a tool for artistic expression or documentation, it is a lot more than that. Photography has the power to raise awareness, to change the narrative thus inspiring people to take action, for instance my work around ‘Water Life’ from 2018 addressed the plight of water access and its impact not only on the society but also on women in rural regions, especially so in Ethiopia but also across Africa. In reality, it is a tool to spread education not only inside our own regions and countries but also beyond our borders to be able to draw attention, start a conversation and bring people together.
When plagiarism becomes ‘privileged artistic violation’
Inside Imaging | October 19, 2021
Ethiopian fine art photographer, Aïda Muluneh, has described an Italian student’s image, showing in a group exhibition at the Milan Photo Festival, as ‘blatant plagiarism’ of her best-known photo, Inferno. As seen above the Italian student photographer, Andrea Sacchetti, clearly copied Muluneh’s image, and had it shown in an exhibition at a prestigious photo festival. Muluneh’s image is from The 99 Series, a project commissioned by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art that ‘demonstrate the ongoing global relevance of the themes addressed in Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem, The Divine Comedy‘. Read More..
Water Life
Photo Climat
In her Afro-futurist images, Ethiopian artist and photographer Aïda Muluneh takes a look at the environmental crisis and its consequences for women. Taken in one of the driest places on the planet, in Dallol in the Afar district of Ethiopia, these images explore the challenges linked to water scarcity: its direct impacts on rural regions or on development. of entire communities. Read More..
Still I Rise by Aïda Muluneh in Abidjan until February 2021
Original - Arts & Culture | January 29, 2021
More than an exhibition, a journey: Aida Muluneh's “Still I rise” exhibition is an invitation to travel. The artist plunges us into his colorful and meaningful universe. She tackles many subjects, always relying on primary colors. The reds are deep. Blues and yellows are seen from afar in his works. These primary colors are a reference to the murals of churches in Ethiopia. Read More..
This Being Human
This Being Human is a podcast by the Aga Khan Museum and TVO. In every episode, host Abdul-Rehman Malik interviews an insightful guest about Muslim art, culture, history and society. You’ll hear fascinating explorations of everything from prayer and pilgrimage to politics and pop culture, love and education, feminism, film, sports, music, and so much more. Through deep, thoughtful conversations, this one-of-a-kind podcast aims to bridge divides, dispel myths, and allow us to learn things we didn’t know about the kaleidoscope of Muslim experiences in our world today. Read More..
Women from Nobel Peace Prize 2020: Aida Muluneh's commitment
ELLE | January 24,2021
Far from clichés, never from the urgencies of reality, Aida Muluneh continues to paint female faces and bodies, invested with symbols and a powerful chromatology, to awaken the ancestral force of change, in the gazes addicted to the conflicts of the world and the strategies to satisfy their appetites. Read More..
The Women Photographers Redefining Surrealism for the 21st Century
Artsy | March 19, 2020
In Surrealist circles in early 20th-century Paris, artists explored the sensuality and desire of the subconscious mind. With prominent male artists at the forefront of the movement, the female form came under their gaze. Women’s bodies “became the ultimate surrealist object, it was mystified, fetishized, and othered,” Izabella Scott wrote for Artsy in 2017. The photographers of the Surrealist movement were no exception. Read more..
The past, present and future of Ethiopia by artist AïdaMuluneh
Middle East Mirror | March 4, 2020
Ethiopian artist AïdaMuluneh's striking photograph titled "The past, the present and the future" depicts three women with blue skin; it is extremely evocative, and reminiscent of the painting "The three ages of Woman" by Gustav Klimt. The photo contains pop-culture elements, calling to mind the comic book character Mystique from X-Men, or Neytiri from the movie Avatar. Read more..
The artistic paradox of Ethiopia's water woes
BBC News | September 21, 2019
Renowned Ethiopian artist Aida Muluneh has taken a series of striking images to depict the harsh life of many women in rural areas - especially their daily efforts to obtain clean water for their families.Her Water Life series, which was commissioned by the charity WaterAid, will be on display at London's Somerset House from 24 September. Read more…
AïdaMuluneh’s ‘Water Life’ highlights water scarcity and its burden on women
This Is Africa | September 20, 2019
Ethiopian photographer AïdaMuluneh went to Dallol, Afar, Ethiopia, an extreme landscape where it is dry and hot to capture the essence of water to life. Through her work Muluneh highlights how water scarcity is mainly a burden on women. Read More..
AïdaMuluneh: Water Life
British Journal Of Photography | September 20, 2019
Currently, one in three women in the world do not have access to a decent toilet, and it is estimated that 335 million girls go to school without water or soap available when changing sanitary products. But, the implications of this lack of clean water go beyond immediate health and sanitation issues.
Many societies rely on women for water collection, which is used for cooking, cleaning, and bathing. While living in Ethiopia, photographer AïdaMuluneh encountered women who travelled for hours by foot, carrying heavy vessels of water back to their homes. Her latest series Water Life, commissioned by WaterAid, expresses these harsh daily realities, which not only affect a woman’s personal life but the future of their communities. Now, with the rise of extreme weather events caused by climate change, the competition for clean water is rapidly increasing. Severe droughts make its availability unpredictable, and flooding threatens to contaminate the supply, spreading diseases faster. Read more..
Water Life, fight drought and describe the devastating effects of climate change in a photographic exhibition
In A Bottle | September 18, 2019
MILAN - Photographs taken in the hottest place on the planet to report and combat drought in Ethiopia. The new exhibition by Aida Muluneh is called " Water Life ": described by the Ethiopian artist as " Afrofuturist ", the exhibition intends to show the devastating effects caused by climate change, the arid and dry climate of the most torrid African territories. Read more..
Aida Muluneh’s Somerset House photography series
City Matters | September 12, 2019
Internationally acclaimed Ethiopian artist Aida Muluneh is showcasing her extraordinary ‘Water Life’ series at Somerset House, London, from 24 September, inspired by the impact of dirty water on women’s lives and futures. The new display, which runs until 20 October, features 12 pieces commissioned by WaterAid with support from the H&M Foundation, and was shot in the extreme landscape of one of the hottest and driest places on earth, Dallol, Afar, in Northern Ethiopia. Read More..
Water Life
Aesthetica Magazine | September 9, 2019
Around the world, 785 million people live without clean water close to home. In Ethiopia, almost four in ten individuals have no access. Internationally acclaimed artist Aida Muluneh (b. 1974) responds to this urgent issue in Water Life, a series of 12 Afrofuturist photographs on view at Somerset House, London. The works – commissioned by WaterAid with support from the H&M Foundation – engage with the experiences of women and girls, many of whom travel daily on foot carrying heavy burdens of water. Read more..