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Aksum is no more in Aksum. Aksum used to be in its place, to be a place of trade, of power, of exchanges. Still exchanges are happening but above Aksum, from the global perspective. Aksum turned to be a symbol, a myth. A brilliant absence.

"Rome is no more in Rome, she is only where I am" says Sertorius in Corneille's tragedy. At the end of the day, I understood better what I was doing here. In Aksum, absence and return does belong to the same story. They talk about Exile. Exile can be a romance. It is about poetics. Harsh and cynical poetics. Past, present, and future are disjunctive and appear as foreign countries. Wherever you are you belong to another time. Whenever you're there, you belong to another place. And no heritage will tell where you go, where you come from. It's just about imagination. Images, narratives, Exile. This is what I found: Exile as a romance.

Aksum is no more in Aksum, she is only where I am.



(end of the story)

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Uploaded on Jul 31, 2008

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Past, present, future. In Aksum the present is just a transition to a better future that already belongs to history. History is not empirical, is not linear, is not materialistic. History is a myth. The future never turns to be better here. Sometimes it is worst, most of times it is just the same. History is circular. Birth, war, death, re-birth, death. Life.

In the thickness of Aksum history there is no place for the reality: the one who could escaped the city, the one who come are just here for a while. The Tigrayan guerilla went to the capital, taking over the power. They decided to make Aksum a symbol of an impossible national unity. It does not belong anymore the Tigray, neither to its people, neither to Ethiopia. it belongs to the world. Heritage, global issues, millenium goals, "make poverty history". Make it a symbol. Aksum belongs to the myth of better times -past and future.

But Aksum is no more in Aksum.


Anyway See where this picture was taken. [?]

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Uploaded on Jul 31, 2008  |  Map

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Aksum -myth and reality. The Queen of Sheba was ruling the Aksumite Empire in the 10th century BC (that is an historical fact). She went to meet with the King Salomon of Israel (that is a mythological fact). She returned pregnant of a son, Menelik. Imagine, a dynasty mixing blood from the most prestigious powers of the time -and opposing to the prestigious Pharaohs and Persians! Then miracles occured: the Ark of Convenant (no, Indiana Jones has nothing to do in the story). Then a long way to decade until the 20th century: wars, guerillas, repressions, famines, death.

Archaeologists returned to Aksum. Looking for the historical evidences of the myth (which kind of luxuous whore was that Sheba?). The Obelisk returned from its Italian exile. Tourists are coming. A museum is going to be opened.

"we ordered paintings from the traditional painters representing the myths of Aksum, told me the guy of the museum. Everyone here can understand these paintings. We will exhibit above the archaeological objects.
-ah, that's a good idea: you will 'deconstruct' the myth with archaeological data?
-no, of course not: the archaeological data will confirm the people the stories they believe in actually happened!"

(to be continued but almost finished)

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Uploaded on Jul 31, 2008

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What was I doing in Aksum? I was exactly wondering about the issue walking in the middle of the night in the street (dark of course) when Getachew, a long skinny 13 years old boy dressed in a destroyed school uniform, came to me. He started to talk in a very broken english, full of blank sentences but with such a conviction, that I already agreed to his request. We found a translator: he wanted me to go to speak to his school to share my experience.
-oh my experience, which one? I'm so unexperienced!
-your experience of foreigner in Ethiopia.

The next day he invited me me to his family's house. His father welcomed me with an inner smile. He had been a fighter for 18 years in the guerilla. When the guerilla seized power on Ethiopia, they sent him home with his memory and a pension of $24 per month. In the room's ceiling, there was a military jacket, a bag, a cap. On the wall, an old yellowish picture of men, with afro haircuts and bazooka and kalashnikov. We had food, talks about how Getachew had to manage his future. We left, without any word Getachew's father looked at me in my eyes, the first time someone was looking at me in the eyes since I arrived in Aksum. I knew what I was looking for in Aksum.

But I did not take a picture of them. Maybe the only one worth to be shot.

(to be continued)

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Uploaded on Jul 29, 2008

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