Le Point
Aida Muluneh: when water is a struggle for women
EXPOSURE. The Ethiopian photographer exhibits in London her photos taken for the NGO Water Aid in the hottest city in the world, Dallo.
By Valérie Marin La Meslée
October 5, 2019
In London's historic Somerset House, where the seventh edition of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair is held until October 6, the glowing yellow basement walls host Aida Muluneh's Water life exhibition . . The photos of this artist and cultural entrepreneur were taken in Dallo in her native Ethiopia . It is the hottest city in the world: it is on average 45 degrees.
" Come home "
But what the hell did the photographer go to do in this region? Shoot the series of 12 photos for the NGO Water Aid campaign, alerting to the lack of access to drinking water in the world. And from woman to woman, in this dreamlike setting where she brings modernity, she immediately leaves her mark to tell a story in twelve tables: that of access to water today in certain places on the planet, and how this issue rests, at least on the African continent, on the shoulders of women.
“Ever since I have traveled to my country, I have seen these women carry water for miles, without ever a man being there to take care of it. »Very concerned by the subject, it is, rather than the reporter photographer, the artist in her who stepped up to the niche for this project in this Danakil desert where she had already shot a clip for Fatoumata Diawara's Fenfo album . “When Water Aid came to me, I immediately told them come to my place , in this incredible landscape. "
Afrofuturist
As always, Aida Muluneh made her sketches and carefully prepared the photoshoots before taking her team to these extreme conditions: “We had umbrellas, and everything we needed to withstand the heat, I had some worry about the hardware, but nothing melted! For this series, the artist once again used one of the three models with which she works most often. These women are his double, the projections of his personality in the photo, composing "a sort of visual journal of [his] experience". They have painted faces and bodies, and are dressed and surrounded by brightly colored materials that give her work that dimension often described as Afrofuturist.
Body painting
“The dimension of the painted body dates back to a tradition in Africa , but not only, it is also found in Brazil , and I use it in the present while projecting it into the future. As for the colors, I realized that unconsciously, they came from my cultural heritage, since in Ethiopia the churches are painted in primary colors. Some say my work is pop, but these bright blues or reds mostly express the intensity of what I want to show, of what I feel. My photos also contain some darkness, but it is less visible. "
This "bodypainting" or "facepainting", Aida Muluneh practiced it for the first time when she was a student in the United States , for the poster of a fashion show, inspired by the tattoos that Ethiopians wear as a sign of beauty. Her entry into the world of photography comes from this "premiere" and from the Bamako Biennale where she was selected in 2007 by Simon Njami, she was able to impose in her art this vision of the African woman freed from all exoticism. or sexualization, from one exposure to another.
Born in 1974 in Addis Ababa , to a family from Wollo province, Aida Muluneh grew up in Canada , studied in the United States. It was photography, via the Bamako meeting, that brought her back to the continent where she lives and works today. In her hometown, she created the Addis Foto Festival in 2010, inspired by the Malian event with which her festival alternates from year to year. She founded Desta (Developping and educating society through art) which means happiness in Amharic, her mother tongue, to pursue what her mother and Canada gave her most: education and tools for life. Its permanent commitment,her fight so that the photography sector and more generally the arts becomes a priority axis of development, shared in particular with Angélique Kidjo , has not weakened for almost ten years.
Watch the movie that was shot in Dallo by Michael Adeyemiduring the shooting of this series on the water, we already have a feeling that the one who wanted to make cinema and that the photo embarked on her ship will return to her first love. She confirms it, but gives time to time. His work is slowly but surely making a difference. "The strength and dignity of women, this is what my work shows," says Aida Muluneh, who advances with deep convictions that sometimes frighten those who meet her. “When I came to Dallo to shoot the video for Fatou, people were flabbergasted that a woman was leading the team, but when I came back for Water Aid, a milestone had been taken. I am very close to people, I love meetings, and this feedback has shown me that we can break conventions, not that this is my goal, but doing my job, that's what happens. The people of the region even wanted to offer me land there! "
Aida Muluneh now lives with her youngest 7-year-old son in Abidjan, where she was initially welcomed by the Donwahi Foundation and where she trains young Ivorian photographers. Africa is its base, but it is always on the move. Amsterdam, London, her reports, the 9,000 photos that await her for the selection of the next edition of AFF in December 202O, but also the young students of her Ivorian workshop, who follow her to pre-colonial sites, her project In the long term. She dreams of taking a "break" and one day will come the time for a simple life, in harmony with nature. As in Dallo, “this desert place where it is so difficult to live but where the very silence is visual”.