​MARIANNE SKJELDAL

Addis Ababa, Etiopia, 2014.

A performance art project initiated by Ingri Fiksdal, Helle Siljeholm, Sara Christophersen and myself in cooperation with the Alle School of Fine Art and Design, Addis Ababa.

In 2014 performative interventions were conducted in public spaces Addis Ababa. A result of a project evolving over two years, developed in collaboration with 16 Ethiopian artists, a journalist, a photographer and Alle School of Fine Arts. The thematics of the work centered around migration, inside within and outside Ethiopia. As part of the project, academics, artists, curators and critics from East Africa were invited for a seminar in Addis Ababa.

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Moving Society - Addis Ababa was a choreographic, performative, relational art project exploring human mobility by addressing local social and political issues. The participating artists collaborated to develop performative and relational artworks displayed in public spaces. Moving Society was working to challenge and encourage dialogue, reflection and discussion both within the project itself and when meeting the public, aiming to generate movement in the society in which the project was created. The issues addressed were locally rooted and came from a local engagement and interest.

Moving Society - Addis Ababa was a joint project between the Norwegian choreographers Sara Christophersen, Ingri Fiksdal, Helle Siljeholm and Marianne Skjeldal and the Ethiopian artists Michael Tsegaye (photographer), Berhanu Asagrihe (visual artist), Agegnehu Adane (visual artist and writer) and Frewayni Giday (documentary filmmaker). Furthermore the project involved young artists who participated in the pilot project Social Choreography, which took place in Addis Ababa, December 2012. The project was also open for interested students at the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design to follow the process. The work was founded on dialogue and exchange. Together we developed knowledge, work processes and practices, strategies and networks according to the context we were working within.

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Moving Society wanted to facilitate interregional exchange, aiming to enhance the role and relevance of contemporary art as a mobilising and political force in East-African society. Moving Society can thus in the outmost sense be understood as a continuous social choreography beyond national borders, where social and political engagement, process and dialogue are the cornerstones.

Supported by: Arts council Norway. Co - produced by: Alle School of Fine Art and Design, Addis Ababa.

A documentary on the project was made and shown on National Ethiopian TV.