Elias Sime and Meskerem Assegued: Zoma

1 May - 1 June 2022

Located in the heart of Addis Ababa, Zoma Museum is a dream 25 years in the making, inspired by the timeless and structurally sound vernacular architecture of Ethiopia. The museum, co-founded by Elias Sime and Meskerem Assegued, opened in early 2019 and features an edible garden, elementary school, children’s center, library, amphitheater, and gallery spaces.
Zoma Museum is an environmentally conscious art institution in Addis Ababa. Zoma’s mission is centered around education and the teaching of building methods that have demonstrated their abilities to withstand the ravages of time while maintaining their grace and beauty.
In 2009, The New York Times described it as “a voluptuous dream, a swirl of ancient technique and ecstatic imagination.”
The museum acts as a bridge between artists and architects from around the world to create cutting-edge ecological art and architecture. It aims to showcase innovative and cutting-edge art and architecture in a vernacular building where the old and the new merge.
The technique used to create the building structure is known as “wattle and daub.” The combination of mud and straw makes a composite material that is both strong and flexible. Through this context, Zoma is built using traditional construction techniques. The building materials also include stone, wood, and cement.
" [Elias Sime] is often inspired by nature and whatever moves him at any moment. The patterns on the main gallery were inspired by the amount of work it took and the ups and down we went through to build Zoma Museum. It was a long and windy road. He made them to resemble both the lines of a thumbprint and a very windy road."

- Meskerem Assegued
Trying to add up what Zoma does is challenging, as the physical space is a work of stunning vernacular architecture and art, while the programming is grounded in Addis Ababa and focused on an international stage. It has become one of the most important art institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, funding projects through small grants and the selling of Sime’s work to collectors and museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
“They are constantly pulling in the local artists and making sure they are considered for opportunities that come to Addis so that they can have exposure to processes that they might have not yet have got to in their careers.”

- Zoma Wallace, Curator at the District of Columbia Arts Center in Washington
Elias Sime (b.1968 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) deftly weaves, layers and assembles carefully selected everyday materials, transforming commonplace items into lyrical abstract compositions that suggest topography, figuration, and color fields. He has exhibited extensively around the world. The Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College presented Elias Sime: Tightrope in the Fall of 2019. Curated by Tracy L. Adler, the Wellin Museum’s Johnson-Pote Director, the exhibition travelled to the Akron Art Museum, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Royal Ontario Museum. Sime was also the subject of a solo exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum in 2020. In 2019, Elisa Sime received an African Art Award from the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and was shortlisted for the Hugo Boss Prize 2020. Sime's work will be featured in the 59th Venice Biennale, opening April 23, 2022. LEARN MORE →

Meskerem Assegued is an anthropologist, curator, and writer. In 2002, she founded ZCAC (Zoma Contemporary Art Center), an artist residency located in Addis Ababa and Harla, a small village south of Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. Over the last 16 years, Meskerem has curated numerous exhibitions both in Ethiopia and abroad. These include Giziawi #1, an art happening in Addis Ababa (2002); Devine Light by David Hammons at ZCAC (2003); Green Flame with Elias Sime, Ernesto Novelo, and Julie Mehretu; and the co-curated Eye of the Needle, Eye of the Heart by Elias Sime with Peter Sellars (2009). She was a member of the selection committee for the 2004 Dak’Art Biennale and the 2007 Venice Biennale African Pavilion, and is currently doing research for an upcoming exhibition at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany.

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies

Viewing Rooms

Please provide your contact information to view this page.

Email address *

Receive newsletters *

Yes No

Enter

Back to homepage

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.

Elias Sime and Meskerem Assegued: Zoma

Cookie preferences

Viewing Rooms

Please check your email