Muna Mussie: Bologna St.173, Un viaggio a ritroso. Congressi e Festival Eritrei a Bologna

{{B:Bologna St.173, Un viaggio a ritroso}} is a project by artist Muna Mussie that reactivates personal memories, historical and iconographic archives of the Eritrean Congresses and Festivals held in Bologna from 1972 to 1991. Attended by Eritrean diasporic communities from all over the world, these festivals were at the forefront of the armed fight for Eritrea’s independence from Ethiopia since 1961. At the end of the war, the new Eritrean government, proclaimed in 1993 by President Isaias.

The artist puts into dialogue archival materials from Bologna with works from previous researches and new works. A newly conceived performance that inaugurates the exhibition is a collective and propitiatory rite that follows a circular movement and recalls the traditional dances of Eritrean culture and the figure of the hoop snake.

The following organisations were involved: the Historical Archive of Comune di Bologna Bologna; Biblioteca Amilcar Cabral | Settore Biblioteche e Welfare Culturale; Home Movies—Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia—Fondo Giorgio Lolli; Resto del Carlino archive; Archivio storico Paolo Pedrelli CdLM Bologna; the Eritrean Community in Italy; photographic archive of Mario Rebeschini, Massimo Sciacca and Luciano Nadalini.

Project supported by the Italian Council (11th edition, 2022), the program aims to support Italian contemporary art in the world promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity, part of the Italian Ministry of Culture. In this context, the project will be completed in 2024 and donated to MAMbo for its permanent collection.

The exhibition at MAMbo, curated by Francesca Verga in dialogue with Archive Ensemble, follows Muna Mussie’s solo exhibition entitled Bologna St. 173. Il sole d’agosto, in alto nel cielo, batte forte (Archive Milano 2021), curated by Zasha Colah and Chiara Figone.

mambo-bologna.org