Elle

The future of water, Africa and women in the feminine spirit of Aida Muluneh's art

By Simona Marani

May 26, 2019

The memory of water, the future of Africa and the emancipation of its feminine spirit, arrive on display with the art of Aida Muluneh, from New York to London, passing through the Women Deliver in Vancouver.

"Clear, fresh and sweet waters, where the beautiful limbs placed her who alone seems to me a woman" - Francesco Petrarca

Photography has the power to make some images speak, others sing. I think of a canticle of love (as sublime as Petrarch's) for Africa framed by Aida Muluneh . A photographic language that uses color as a painter and the female body as a canvas for the divine grace of an ancient continent. She uses the beauty and strength of a great mother to change the future of her children, who grew up in the rest of the world like the Ethiopian photographer, with the clichés we all know better than reality.

Even those on access to water disseminated by the media and humanitarian organizations, challenged with the new works of Water Life . Twelve like the stations of the symbolic Via Crucis undertaken by the photographer, together with the non-profit organization WaterAid and against the consequences of the use of contaminated water. An important project for the development of the continent, also supported by the sale of the works, on show by David Krut Projects in New York at Somerset House in London, passing through Women Deliver in Vancouver (3-6 June 2019).

Far from the clichés about Africa but never from the urgencies of its reality, the photographer continues to reserve an allegorical role for women, painting face and body with elements and primary colors of the Ethiopian Orthodox church, while the fabrics embrace and elevate the condition beyond differences cultural, social and geographical. Ideas, poems and the different experiences of everyday life, give life to the sketches and a shooting process that has nothing to envy to the cinematographic one, complete with make-up artists and stylists who create the clothes for each image.

The tableaux of Water Life, transfigure the long journeys undertaken by women to provide clean water to the community, together with the extreme landscapes of Dallol, Afar, Ethiopia. They suggest new perspectives on the physical and psychological burden that most women bear. To the value of their strength that quenches arid landscapes, together with those we carry inside.

The project broadens the reflection on the impact of the lack of access to drinking water. It extends the problem of repercussions on the health and progress of the community to the very heavy consequences it has on the education and emancipation of women.

Water Life continues to challenge stereotypes about a continent that Aida Muluneh explores together with the identity of an African woman . She returned to Ethiopia (1974), after having lived in Yemen, Cyprus, England, Canada and the United States, feeling a stranger everywhere. Moving from photo-reports of the world for the Washington Post, to the language of art that aims to change the way the world and Africans see Africa.

A conversation in which Aida Muluneh participates by letting herself be guided by personal emotions and feelings. Well supported by photographic talent, in tune with the prestigious focuses of institutions such as the MoMA in New York , as well as with the crossroads of African images from the whole world that animate the Addis Foto Fest (AFF) . The international biennial of fine arts, photojournalism and fashion photography that she organizes and supports, together with the artistic consultancy DESTA for Africa (Developing and Educating Society Through Art), founded in Addis Ababa.

Aida Muluneh uses the power of photography to touch the most vital nuances of a complex continent. A real 'rebranding' that aims at the development of the country with the strength of its creativity. It believes and invests in the education of its gazes and objectives, direct witnesses of the most changing and neglected dynamics. Try to change the story of Africa, along with the erroneous beliefs underlying many problems of the present that hinder its future.

Aida Muluneh's project also makes a nice contribution to Women Deliver (3-6 June 2019). The world's largest conference on gender equality and the health, rights and well-being of girls and women, poised to bring more than 6,000 world leaders, influencers, advocates, academics, activists, journalists and artists to Vancouver. A chorus of voices determined to accelerate progress for women of all ages and latitudes, presenting new knowledge and solutions to be promoted worldwide.

How to: Aida Muluneh: Water Life , from David Krut Projects in New York (until June 14, 2019); Women Deliver in Vancouver (June 3-6, 2019); Somerset House in London (24 September - 20 October 2019).

PressPatrick PrivatMarch 17, 2021