ETHIOPIA

For its first participation in the Biennale, Ethiopia bets on Tesfaye Urgessa, born in 1983 and trained in Addis Ababa under the guidance of master Tadesse Mesfin, before continuing his artistic journey in Stuttgart at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste. Urgessa’s artistic practice links Ethiopian iconography with a deep fascination for Russian realism and German neo-expressionism, producing anatomical and profoundly symbolic compositions that touch on themes such as identity and racism, dismantling false stereotypes about refugees and migration.