NEW YORK, NY, April 26, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Third Space Art Foundation announces that interdisciplinary artist-curator Tsedaye Makonnen will present the performance Waves of Ash at the 2026 Venice Biennale. The work, created in collaboration with Jermay Michael Gabriel, will be performed during preview week (May 5–9, 2026) as part of 1922 Revisited, a live arts program examining the historical 1922 Biennale exhibition.
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Makonnen is an interdisciplinary artist-curator working across performance, sculpture, textile, installation, and film. Born in Washington, D.C., to Ethiopian immigrants, her practice draws on East African heritage, Black feminist theory, diasporic knowledge systems, and spiritual technologies. Her work engages migration, memory, and social justice, and has been presented prominent museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.
In 2019, as a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow, Makonnen presented When Drowning Is the Best Option, a performance addressing global migration and displacement. She returned to Venice in 2022 as part of Loophole of Retreat: Venice, a convening organized in conjunction with the U.S. Pavilion.
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Waves of Ash, developed with Gabriel, links both artists’ practices through a shared engagement with migration, the archive of memory, and the deviation of Western epistemology. The work takes the form of an installation composed of burned wood and textiles, incorporating objects gathered from the Venetian lagoon. Presented as a conical structure, the act of burning, understood as both destruction and transformation, raises questions about how histories are transmitted and received.
The performance situates the lagoon as a liminal site of passage and stratified memory, where the Mediterranean and Atlantic symbolically converge. Through this framework, Waves of Ash engages the histories of Black, African, and Afro-descendant peoples shaped by migration, forced crossings, and suppressed narratives. The work ultimately converges on a central question: whether history should be destroyed or preserved, or approached through critical reinterpretation.
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Gabriel’s collaboration contributes to the material and spatial realization of the work, reinforcing its engagement with structure, transformation, and the physical conditions of memory. Together, the artists construct a shared environment that invites reflection on how histories are held, contested, and reimagined.
Waves of Ash will be presented at the Giardini della Marinaressa as part of 1922 Revisited, organized by Third Space Art Foundation in collaboration with the African Art in Venice Forum (AAVF) and the European Cultural Centre (ECC-Italy) . The program features a series of live performances by contemporary artists engaging with the historical legacy of the 1922 Biennale exhibition.
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Key Facts
- Featured Artist: Tsedaye Makonnen
- Collaborating Artist: Jermay Michael Gabriel
- Performance Title: Waves of Ash
- Program: 1922 Revisited
- Dates: May 5–9, 2026 (Preview Week)
- Location: Giardini della Marinaressa, Venice
- Presented by: Third Space Art Foundation
- In collaboration with: African Art in Venice Forum; European Cultural Centre
Learn More
- Third Space Art Foundation: https://thirdspaceartfoundation.org/
- 1922 Revisited: https://1922revisited.org/
- Venice Biennale: https://www.labiennale.org/en
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About Third Space Art Foundation
Third Space Art Foundation supports artistic exchange and collective engagement through the cultivation of third spaces - dynamic zones of encounter, negotiation, and creative transformation. Drawing from the widely embraced concept of third space as a site for dialogue, and Homi Bhabha’s decolonial theory of third space as a liminal ground that challenges fixed hierarchies and dominant narratives, Third Space Art Foundation advances practices that expand cultural understanding and foster new frameworks for connection. Through exhibitions, residencies, and collaborative initiatives, it brings together artists and communities across geographic and cultural divides, working to catalyze critical inquiry, mutual understanding, and new structures of solidarity.
Attachments
- Tsedaye Makonnen and Jermay Michael Gabriel Perform Waves of Ash in Venice
- Portrait of Tsedaye Makonnen
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