Journey to Addis Ababa
Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh
2 – 26 August 2022
Monday to Friday,
9:30am–1:30pm, 2:30–5:00 pm
The exhibition “Journey to Addis Ababa” is part of a project by the Associazione culturale Pavel Aleksandrovic Florenskij which intends to follow up on the commitment of the archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa.
Sebastiano Tusa (2 August 1952 – 10 March 2019) was an Italian archaeologist and politician who served as councilor for Cultural Heritage for the Sicilian Region of Italy from 11 April 2018 until his death on 10 March 2019. Tusa also served as a professor of palaeontology at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples.
Tusa was one of 157 people killed in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, on 10 March 2019. The plane was flying from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. He was heading to Malindi, where he had been invited to attend a conference organized by UNESCO.
His work in the field of archaeological and paleontological research – demonstrated through the medium of art – provides insights into the origins, migrations and their interactions. According to the researcher Andrea Aglani, the archaeological investigation methods of Tusa lead precisely to Ethiopia. This Italian colony was the place of discovery and current conservation of the Australopithecus Lucy, and to Addis Ababa. This city being a few kilometres from where the plane crash occurred which also counts Tusa among one of its victims.
The exhibition consists of works from an international contemporary art competition on the theme of industrial archeology, dedicated to the Sicilian archaeologist. It follows a journey which began in Trapani, then Edinburgh (at the IIC) and will end in New York (TBC).
The exhibition will include some works by Pietro Sciortino, representative of contemporary Sicilian art and guest of honor of the event.
For more information please visit HERE