Travelogue by Dawit Abebe

When Dawit Abebe arrived in Venice to begin his residency, he quickly felt how the city sets its own rhythm. From the first days, orientation becomes fully tied to walking: bridge after bridge, passage after passage, this condition gradually turns into both necessity and method, shaping how the city is seen and experienced.

What first seems like a practical constraint soon opens into something more layered. He feels that moving through narrow paths and shifting spaces produces a slow build-up of effects: fatigue, alertness, disorientation, clarity. Over time, these sensations become part of the work itself, showing how lived experience can quietly reshape perception.

But the city is also unfolding through encounters. Dawit is struck by how people sharing the same routes, brief exchanges, and moments of co-presence in transit form a constant, almost invisible layer of experience. Even small interactions create a sense of collective flow, where perception and knowledge move through shared trajectories. These observations connect to his ongoing interest in geography, mapping, and bodily displacement. In Venice, these themes find a direct field of experience: everyday movement on the ground starts to overlap with broader reflections on how space is represented and understood.

Visits to Biennale Arte and local sites add another layer. At the glass furnaces on the island of Murano, processes of transformation offer, for instance, a parallel point of reflection. The changing states of glass for instance echo what is already being experienced in the city, where form and perception remain in constant adjustment.

Dawit continues to explore Venice through its museums, streets, and daily routes, and we are excited to see how many more impressions, encounters, and new directions will emerge along the way.