In his recent work, Robel Temesgen has increasingly examined the implications of carrying material and immaterial luggage when travelling between geographical locations with starkly different contexts. For his project Practising Water (2023–) Temesgen travelled to sites along the course of the Blue Nile in north western Ethiopia, from the source spring of Gish Abay all the way to the Chis Abay Waterfall just before the Blue Nile pours into the Rift Valley. In this installation, especially conceived for the exhibition, Temesgen considers his own travels alongside those of Abba Gorgoryos (1595–1658) throughout Europe. Gorgoryos was a monk and scholar who met orientalist Hiob Ludolf at the Vatican and informed him of his quest to publish Ethiopia’s history in Geʽez and Amharic languages. What was Gorgoryos, who died in a shipwreck close to Aleppo on his long anticipated return to Ethiopia, carrying on his journey from Germany? And what can an artistic reconstruction of his travels—as well as his material and immaterial luggage—reveal when seen from a contemporary perspective? These questions have informed the resulting installation featuring thirty-six items that Gorgoryos might have possibly taken along on his return, each one placed in, on, or under an agelgil (a woven basket covered in leather), and muday (containers used for food, valuables, and clothing). The installation thus travels in time between Gorgoryos’s and the artist’s own travels between Europe and Ethiopia, while considering that which is (potentially) brought along with each return.

Commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), co-produced by Robel Temesgen and HKW, 2024–25

Work in the exhibition: Eventual return; what to take back (2025), hypothetical and actual goods including woven baskets, paintings, and valuables, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist