With the aim of creating a collaborative working space for image sector practitioners, the creative futures team in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia opened its doors to 365 practitioners from 6 - 31 March 2018. Based out of xHub Addis offices, the space was available to creative practitioners from Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am till 8pm to make sure that those working could also benefit from this project.
Through a variety of workshops, exercises and invited speakers, these 117 participants were able to practically expand their networks, test and practice their newly acquired skills. Supported by the Creative Future’s team facilitation and the space, these returning artists developed collaboration by forming 19 teams of diverse practitioners, talked through, developed and created their collaborative Art projects.
One of the teams was formed by Dagmawi – Architect and Visual Artist and Nesri – Fashion Designer who teamed up to develop a relaxation box which aims to fight off boredom in the office space by bringing the ‘desired’ destination or place to the office. At present they are doing this by using 3D abstract artwork and sound effects. But they envision going further by bringing 3D live simulation into the picture.
‘You don’t have to buy a plane ticket to travel somewhere. You can bring the place here through technology. Our theme is thinking outside the Box, inside the Box’ commented Dagmawi.
All these collaborative Arts works/installation will be showcased to the public in June and we hope that those of you in town will be able to come and watch that.
Below are some of the comments that were received from some of the participants:
“I always say this, but let me say it again, keep doing what you are doing”
“Very useful experience and sharing I truly appreciate the diversity …. I was thinking that if we all got such place to spend time in, most of the youth will be saved as there are very few places for such healthy activities.”
“Absolutely yes, I have met very crucial individuals here whom would be ideal to further develop my career … without hesitation I will definitely stay in touch with them and even develop future projects together … I have had the opportunity to see in practice how one can work with other artists, how we can capitalise on our group sets of skills and I have even managed to develop patience and come up with collaborative projects.”
“I was very happy with our visit to the Creative Futures’ Events management trainees’ event”
“Meeting Eyerus & Amanuel [invited guests founders of Sabegn a new concept store in Addis] was one the highlight of my day inviting such young successful professionals who are willing to share and collaborate made it even more awesome”
“It is very important project, you are creating a great space for us to collaborative and sharing ideas … just want to say thank you so so much … keep it up”
“Everything was great, the networking and collaboration is amazing, I am getting a lot of different experiences …”
“Amazing experiment it was … thank you”
For more information you can enjoy photos of these amazing artists at work on our Facebook page or website
Creative Futures is an European Union funded partnership programme which is implemented by British Council, Goethe-Institut and iceaddis, to work with the creative industry at different levels. Click on the next link to get more information about our activities https://ethiopia.britishcouncil.org/programmes/arts/creative-futures