Marxist-Modern 
መልመጃ ፩ | Melmeja Ande | Exercise One
2020 - 2021
Bergen and Oslo, Norway 

Marxist-Modern is an ongoing artistic exploration of Ethiopia’s political and cultural transformation in the wake of the 1960s Ethiopian Student Movement. Initiated in 2020, this project seeks to unravel the legacies of one of Africa’s most influential student-led political movements. This project is a journey through Ethiopia’s shifting political and social landscape, seen through the eyes of its thinkers, dreamers, and revolutionaries. 

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Structured into thematic segments, or chapters, the project interrogates the process of “modernizing Ethiopia”, tracing its evolution and consequences. At the core of this project is an ongoing practice, መልመጃ (Melmeja, an Amharic term meaning exercise), which serves as both a method of inquiry and a form of artistic experimentation. A concept embodies an evolving artistic process, an ongoing dialogue with time.

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Melmeja (Exercise) allows for revisiting and reworking past works, uncovering new meanings through cycles of creation, deconstruction, and reconstruction. This process involves collaging fragments from earlier paintings created during the first phase of this project (2020–2021) into new compositions. By layering historical references with contemporary interpretations, the works unfold the history of the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution and the shifting role of the intelligentsia in the second half of the 20th century.