The Return of the Axum Obelisk
Description:
The video by Theo Eshetu (London, 1965; lives and works between Rome and Berlin) tells of the return from Italy to Ethiopia of the Axum obelisk that was stolen in 1935 and placed in the Circus Maximus in front of the former Ministry of Colonies (now the FAO headquarters) in continuation of the seizure of Egyptian obelisks as booty by the armies of Roman Emperor Augustus once mounted before various churches and in Ro- man squares in the urban design projects of Pope Sixtus V. Divided into 15 panels or narrative frames typical of traditional Ethiopian painting, the story follows the restitution of the Axum obelisk begun in 2002 completed with its erection on the original site in 2009, inserting the tale in the founding myth of the Queen of Sheba. As told in the sacred text Kebra Nagast (Glory of Kings), the myth recounts the Queen of Sheba’s journey in the 12th century to the Holy Land, where she conceived with King Solomon her son Menelik, the first Emperor of Ethiopia. The tale of the birth of Ethiopia’s imperial dynasty is evoked by the wanderings of the obelisk, now renamed the “Obelisk of Rome” in Ethiopia, where it has become a symbol of post-colonial reconciliation. The complexity of the engineering feat behind the restitution of the obelisk is paralleled by the intricate editing of the video itself that presents a kaleidoscopic restitution of the monument in harmonious combination with various forms of expression in art history and ancient Ethiopian legends. ML
