archaeography

Somewhere around Nekemte (Oromia, Ethiopia). January 2002.

The dream of Reason produces monsters.

In 1991 the communist government of Ethiopia collapsed. The strongest army in Africa vanished. The soldiers suddenly abandoned all the Soviet military technology and returned to their traditional villages. Forest and deserts ate factories, military bases and model farms. Modernity melted into the air.

What happened in this river? Was the tank hit by an RPG? Did it simply run out of fuel or break down? A tank becomes landscape in Oromia.

I am interested in how modernity fails or goes wrong, how it produces ruins and rubbish. I study the confrontation between modernity and traditional cultures in Spain and Ethiopia. Sometimes modernity wins (Spain), sometimes loses (Ethiopia). In both cases, the fight creates archaeological landscapes – abandoned villages, houses, artefacts.