C& (Contemporary and )

Aida Muluneh: The World is 9

Aïda Muluneh’s ‘The World is 9’, consists of a selection of images from a brand new series of photographic works in which Muluneh questions life, love, history, and whether we can live in this world with full contentment.

“I am not seeking answers but asking provocative questions about the life that we live – as people, as nations, as beings.” The title comes from an expression that Muluneh’s grandmother had repeated, in which she stated, “the world is 9, it is never complete and never perfect.”

Aïda Muluneh (b. 1974) is an Ethiopian artist based in Addis Ababa. In 2000 she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in film, radio and television from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Muluneh is the 2007 recipient of the European Union Prize in the Rencontres Africanines de la Photographie in Bamako, Mali, as well as the 2010 winner of the CRAF International Award of Photography in Spilimbergo, Italy. Her work can be found in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, the Hood Museum and the Museum of Biblical Art, as well as the Sindika Dokolo Foundation in Berlin. Muluneh is the founder and director of the Addis Foto Fest the first international photography festival in Ethiopia, as well as Fana Wogi a yearly open call supporting contemporary artists. Aida continues to curate and develop cultural projects with local and international institutions through her company DESTA (Developing and Educating Society Through Art) in Addis Ababa.

PressPatrick PrivatMarch 17, 2021