Dawit Abebe

AKKA Project, proudly announces Dawit Abebe as its thirteenth artist-in-residence, bringing his compelling artistic exploration to Venice.
The residency will take place from April until June, 2026 at AKKA Project Venezia.

 

During his residency in Venice, Abebe will develop a new body of work under the title ጥቁር ሣጥን (BLACKBOX), conceived within an open studio framework that makes the process of making partially visible and continuously evolving. Expanding his ongoing research, the project approaches the body as a “black box”: an opaque system that records, holds, and transmits experience without fully disclosing its internal logic. As the artist notes, “The body is like a black box: it is not meant to be opened, but read through traces and fragments.”

In this context, Venice becomes both a physical and conceptual field of resonance, where light, surface, material culture, and movement feed into a process of observation and transformation.

Alongside BLACKBOX, Abebe further develops his ongoing Barefoot Series, integrating it into the Venetian context as a sensitive register of presence, grounding, and embodiment.

The city’s textures, thresholds, and layered histories inform a practice that remains open, responsive, and in constant dialogue with its surroundings. The residency is conceived as an open studio experience, where work-in-progress, research, and exhibition gradually overlap, offering a non-linear access to the artist’s evolving practice.

 

The residency will culminate in a solo show on June 18, 2026 as The Residency Outcome, on view until July 31, 2026.

 

To see the development of the residency check our social channels and the travelogue.