ArtFair-Addis Abeba-2014

A place where time seems to have stood still in the 1950s is the Circolo Juventus in Addis Ababa (https://circolojuventus.weebly.com/home-eng.html).

A sober yet elegant building, it houses a magnificent ballroom complete with stage and wings, rooms for billiards, briscola (a traditional Italian card game), and reading, as well as a bar, a restaurant, and—outside—football and tennis courts surrounded by tall, leafy eucalyptus trees.

I took part in a collective art exhibition here, where I displayed not only paintings created for the occasion, but also a variety of pieces I had collected over the years while teaching art to children at the Montessori Humpty Dumpty daycare (https://humptydumptyaddis.wixsite.com/daycare): papier-mâché fish-piñatas, animal sculptures, and posters.

A vigilant neighbor's zebeja keeping watch from a makeshift perch amidst house renovations.