How do artistic practices traverse across generations? How do they continue to address critical conditions in our present moment?

In this episode, Hoor Al Qasimi speaks with curator Elizabeth Giorgis about the work of artist Henok Melkamzer, one of the most prolific practitioners of the Ethiopian art form called telsem. Drawing from astrology, religion and spirituality, telsem interweaves symbols, drawings and texts imbued with spiritual and philosophical significance. 

Tune in to hear about how this art form is also an intellectual tradition that has been shaped throughout the ages by the sociopolitical and cultural histories of Ethiopia, and how contemporary artists like Melkamzer challenge Western conceptions of modernism through telsem.