Design Week Addis Ababa (DWAA), a weeklong celebration of innovation and creativity, which was launched on January 14, will close today.
Design Week Addis Ababa is an internationally recognized design and innovation event in Ethiopia. Since launching in December 2015, this festival serves as unique platform to showcase and promote Ethiopia’s creative, cultural, and commercial offerings. The annual event features the best innovations in architecture/urban planning, industrial design/ interiors, technology, visual communication, fashion, art/ multimedia, food and gastronomy, and many more.
According to organizes, the aim is to create a sustainable platform for cultural and commercial engagement and to highlight Ethiopia’s best innovations and innovators across industries. In addition, it aims to provide economic opportunities to both emerging and established artists, artisans, innovators, technologists, architectures, designers and creatives.
Apart from that, it also serves as a global brand ambassador for Ethiopia’s creative industries. This year’s edition featured knowledge exchange and technical development through workshops, panel discussions, exhibitions, and other interactive events and activities.
The Weeknd tops Billboard 200
The Weeknd maintains his throne on this week’s Billboard’s 200 albums chart while Bruno Mars, Drake and J. Cole fall in line behind. Further down the chart, Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo appears at #39 with a 961 percent increase after mysteriously falling off the list last week. The project sold 11,142 equivalent album units and was streamed 16,072,022 with no album sales.
The Weeknd’s “Starboy” is still in outer space as it stays at the top for its second week in a row, and the third time since the album was released in November. In the week that ended Thursday, it was credited with the equivalent of 63,000 sales in the United States, according to Nielsen data. That is mostly because of its popularity on streaming sites; the full album itself sold only 14,000 copies.
Starboy is the third studio album by Ethio-Canadian singer and songwriter. It was released on November 25, 2016. The album features guest appearances from Daft Punk and Kendrick Lamar.
“Great Battle of the Times” gaming app launch @ Goethe
A gaming app “Great Battle of the Times” is scheduled to be launched at the Goethe-Institut on January 26.
The game is developed by a group of Ethiopian architects, engineers, photographers, designers and IT experts, supported by German gamification consultant Christoph Deeg.
The idea for the game “The Battle of the Times” was developed during the workshop “Gamify your City-Future!” which took place in October 2016 at the Goethe-Institut with the aim of introducing gaming methods into city planning and urban development. One of the major challenges that Addis Ababa is facing today is the balance between preserving its past history, accommodating the daily needs of its inhabitants, and planning its future.
This is why the main plot of the story was built on the group’s understanding of time, for one needa to understand Addis’ past and present to plan for its future. So the game has a part to portrait how Addis came to being, how it is changing and how it will look in the future.
Addis Fine Art @ Cape Town Art Fair
Addis Fine Art will exhibit its collections at the upcoming fifth edition of Cape Town Art Fair (CTAF).
The art fair will offer a diverse display of contemporary art from leading local and international galleries. Over 75 exhibitors from established and emerging art centres including London, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Lagos, Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Harare, Nairobi, Accra, and Dubai are participating in CTAF 2017.
Taking place in the heart of Cape Town’s city centre at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) from February 17-19 February, the fair will show a variety of sections dedicated to large-scale installations, emerging artists and online art platforms alongside talks, guided walkabouts, a digital media platform, and outdoor activations.
Other exhibitors are STEVENSON (Cape Town; Johannesburg), Goodman Gallery (Cape Town; Johannesburg), Galerie Cecile Fakhoury (Abidjan, Ivory Coast), Blank Projects (Cape Town), SMAC Gallery (Cape Town; Johannesburg), Gallery 1957 (Accra, Ghana), Addis Fine Art (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), BLOOM Art Lagos (Nigeria), Everard Read (Cape Town; Johannesburg), and GalleryMOMO (Cape Town and Johannesburg).