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When it comes to considering business relationships
that Ethiopians have with one another, not many
positive adjectives come to mind. This is not to say
that there are no good working relationships in
which both parties benefit equally. On the contrary,
there are plenty of working relationships that can
be observed in which all parties involved have
improved their lot in life.
But, like so many things in our country, the members
of this end of the spectrum are few, and many
working relationships lean more to the exploitative
side than anything else. There are a few sectors
that can be mentioned where the upper caste are
making huge sums of money employing people for
barely acceptable wages, in some cases working in
hazardous situations. Construction contractors, for
example, are making sums equal to the budget of a
small regional state, while construction workers are
averaging 10 Br a day in a country where inflation
is rampant.
Then there is the security sector where large
companies are offering security personnel to public,
private and international institutions while being
paid high amounts per hour while the guards actually
doing the work are being paid in the hundreds per
month.
Although I could go on and on with generalised
examples, there is one particular sub-world and
culture that I would like to elaborate on for this
purpose. This is the Ethiopian art scene. For many
it may come as a surprise to know that there are
close to 1,000 practising artists residing right
here in our capital, which is troubling considering
that nothing significant is being done to encourage
the field or to increase public awareness.
As in any field, there are those individuals who are
more interested in making a profit than in bringing
a product to the consuming profit. But this is not
where my issue lays, as this is the natural
intention of any sound-minded businessperson. It
rather with the manner in which those individuals
and galleries have made that effort. As I have
already said, making a profit is the goal of any
businessperson, but any sensible businessperson
would also think to be as generous as possible to
the producer of the goods in order to guarantee
continued supply of the product and to encourage
improvements in quality.
This has not been the case in the many cases in this
world that I have observed over the last year and a
half. Firstly, those who show interest in the art
scene have some sort of unwritten code that allows
them to only expose the work of artists that they
feel would be commercially viable. Of course this is
the prerogative of any businessperson, but it is not
only an insult to the work of artists that create
new and innovative art, but to the consuming public
as well. This is a way of saying that the only art
suitable to enjoy is the art that sells like
hotcakes, which more often than not falls under the
arts and crafts category, rather than that of
contemporary or pure art.
I would be fine with this situation were it not for
the fact that in these situations or when gallery
owners and people, who claim to be interested in
expanding the world of Ethiopian art deal with the
artists whose works they sell, they do so in a
manner that makes the daily wages of the
construction sector look really, really good.
Those with the money pick and choose the sort of art
that they want; of course this is the privilege that
money grants one. But when picking and choosing,
some gallery owners list their own prices for the
art that they sell and offer artists a fixed price
that sometimes can not even buy them supplies for a
week. But being in a life situation where they are
in dire need for the funds, as is the case with most
struggling artists, they are forced to deal with
these people and continue to supply them with the
things that they want in order to get that small
change.
This would be well and good, if we were living in a
patronage, but when people work they have to grow.
The manner in which the artist is dealt with in
Ethiopia does not permit them to do so.
They are caught in a vicious cycle, which is
necessitated by the fact that these places and these
people are the only sure way for them to make money
and earn a living. But in order to earn that living,
they have to succumb to the whims and wishes of the
hand that feeds them, by extension losing the very
essence of what makes them unique as an artist. This
in turn makes them a false scribe, so to speak.
So whose shoulders does the blame get placed on in
this situation? Do you say that the artist is at
fault for allowing a business to sell their good at
much higher or lower prices than they had originally
intended or instead place the blame on the
exploitive nature of the businesses and the people
that run them? Would it even be fair to place blame
at all, not being apart of the entire situation but
merely an outside observer?
Whatever the case, the fact still remains that the
art world in our country is being crippled by the
very people and institutions that claim to be its
advocates. Without public awareness and art
education, there is nothing that can be done to stop
what appears to be the downward spiral of the art
scene. More importantly, if the exploitation of the
artists in the country continues in the manner that
it has been, it is certain to be the death of
contemporary Ethiopian art. |
