EPHREM SOLOMON TEGEGN

Ephrem Solomon Tegegn (Ethiopia, 1983) subtly criticizes the oppression of the government and the political system that promotes segregation in Ethiopia. After a visit by the state police, he adapted his powerful imagery to a more hidden symbolism of collages with Ethiopian newspaper texts from previous regimes and portraits of sad Ethiopians.

Ephrem Solomon Tegegn (Ethiopia, 1983) graduated from Graphics Art Entoto TVET College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2009. He works with mixed techniques and makes engravings and woodcuts on plywood. According to Solomon, the role of an artist is to document the spirit of the times. He observes his environment and shares his views on the city of Addis Ababa and people around him in Ethiopia, always pushing the boundaries of freedom of expression when it comes to open social criticism.

He subtly criticizes the political system and the role of the Ethiopian government towards its nationals. Through hidden symbolism he makes socio-political collages with Ethiopian newspaper texts (in the Amharic language) from previous regimes and portraits of everyday Ethiopians. The portraits are sad, neutral and distorted, just like in the real world where there is no perfection.

Solomon investigates origins, identity and boundaries. ‘We all come from the same source, the oldest human skeleton was found in Ethiopia. Yet people want to set boundaries and categorize them, we see it with national borders but also with classifications of people by ethnicity, which only leads to inequality, discrimination and abuse of power. We need to focus more on the community, the collective.‘

In addition to everyday Ethiopia, he explores a fictional world that exists outside the present: a reality that is free from limitations. Solomon uses a lot of black and white and repetitive shapes. He defines life as contradictions and repetitions. Solomon: “Day and night, sad and happy, winning and losing; it is the same. I can see colors in the world, but at the same time it’s all black and white. Life is full of repetitions in the here and now.”

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