Yohannes Mulat Mekonnen

Biographie

Yohannes Mulat Mekonnen is a Visual Anthropology Fellow at the Global Heritage Lab, University of Bonn, and a Gerda Henkel Research Fellow at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne. He works at the intersection of visual anthropology and contemporary art. The central theme in Mekonnen’s work is the ethical and political dimensions of representation, with particular attention to the asymmetrical relations produced through representational practices. Drawing on his background in multidisciplinary artistic practice and visual anthropology, Mekonnen approaches representation as both a narrative tool and analytical practice, combining ethnographic research with the methodological possibilities of contemporary art.

In 2026, he is assistant curator of the Ethiopian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and curator of We Are What We Are Not at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne (May 7 – August 30, 2026). He also served as a jury member for the German International Ethnographic Film Festival 2026 in Göttingen.

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