ETIOPSKA UMETNOST

IZ POKLON ZBIRKE NINE SEFEROVI

ETHIOPIAN ART

FROM THE NINA SEFEROVI COLLECTION

MUZEJ AFRIKE UMETNOSTI THE MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART

2011 / 2012

SADRAJ

5 PREDGOVOR
Narcisa Kneevi ijan

7 RE POKLONODAVCA
Nada Seferovi

13 ETIOPSKO TRADICIONALNO SLIKARSTVO U KONTINUITETU IZMEU PROLOSTI I SADANJOSTI

Nina Seferovi

23 NA RASKRU ETIOPSKIH PUTEVA

Dragan Mikovi

47 KOLEKCIJA SLIKA SEFEROVI

Reprezent etiopske savremene umetnosti u tradicionalnom stilu Nataa Njegovanovi Risti

83 KERAMIKE FIGURE BETA IZRAEL

Emilia Eptajn

113 UMETNOST OBRADE METALA

Etiopski krstovi i nakit iz zbirke Nine Seferovi Aleksandra Prodanovi Bojovi

141 RE RECENZENTA
Mileta Prodanovi

143 KATALOG POKLON ZBIRKE NINE SEFEROVI

CONTENTS

6 FOREWORD
Narcisa Kneevi ijan

8 WORD FROM THE BENEFACTOR

Nada Seferovi

14 THE CONTINUITY OF ETHIOPIAN TRADITIONAL PAINTING FROM PAST TO PRESENT

Nina Seferovi

24 AT THE CROSSROADS OF ETHIOPIAN ROUTES

Dragan Mikovi

48 THE SEFEROVI PAINTINGS COLLECTION

An Exemplary of Ethiopian Contemporary Art in Traditional Style Nataa Njegovanovi Risti

84 CERAMIC FIGURINES OF THE BETA ISRAEL

Emilia Eptajn

114 THE ART OF METALWORKING

Ethiopian Crosses and Jewellery from the Nina Seferovi Collection Aleksandra Prodanovi Bojovi

142 REVIEWER'S NOTE

Mileta Prodanovi

144 CATALOGUE OF THE NINA SEFEROVI COLLECTION

PREDGOVOR
Narcisa Kneevi ijan redmeti zbirke Seferovi, prenose nam vreme i prostor, konstante jedne velike svetske civilizacije koja se kontinuirano razvijala u dugom istorijskom periodu. Prezentovani predmeti, i oni sakralnog i oni profanog karaktera, svojim su znaajem koji su imali u tradicionalnim zajednicama Etiopije, izuzetno i trajno obogatili i proirili nau muzejsku kolekciju. Gest ambasadora Nusreta Seferovia i njegove porodice: supruge Emilije, erke Nade i unuka Davida, koji su ovu zbirku poklonili naem Muzeju kao uspomenu na Ninu Seferovi, ubeeni smo, bie podstrek mnogim znanim i neznanim buduim darodavcima koji e se pojaviti u narednim decenijama. Na sreu, svedoci smo da se vitalnost naeg Muzeja odraavala poslednjih godina u znaajnom interesovanju publike za muzejske izlobe, naune, edukativne, ali i eksperimentalne umetnike programe. Meutim, istovremeno nezaobilazna naznaka vitalnosti jedne muzejske kue jeste i popunjavanje njenih zbirki. Posmatrajui zbirku Seferovi, rad anonimnih etiopskih umetnika-zanatlija impresionira nas spektakularnim varijetetom umetnikih formi. Upravo to taj aspekt mnogostranosti, polivalentnosti u afrikoj umetnosti, pretvara Muzej u moguu laboratoriju za istraivanje afrike umetnosti. I tako e se kao i u sluaju prvog donatora-osnivaa, porodice ambasadora Zdravka Peara, zavriti jedan specifian put: fascinacija kontinentom predmet sistematska nabavka na terenu legat Muzeju. I kao rezultat: zbirka od 210 novih predmeta u beogradskom Muzeju afrike umetnosti 2011. godine. Sistematizovanje zbirke Seferovi i struna obrada kompletnog materijala, predstavljali su veliki izazov kolegama kustosima, autorima studija o pojedinim tematima unutar zbirke Seferovi. Rad na zbirci e nastaviti budui istraivai, magistri i doktoranti, filozofskog i fakulteta umetnosti koji su i u ovom kratkom periodu 2011-2012 ve iskazali zanimanje za nju. Zainteresovanost koju struna javnost iskazuje je odjek istraivakog i kolekcionarskog rada antropologa Nine Seferovi (1947-1991). Nina Seferovi pripada onoj grupi intelektualaca koji su istrajavali u svojoj misiji da paljivo proue i dokumentuju svet oko sebe. Otkrivajui malo poznate kulture Etiopije ona je radom kao i donetim predmetima izazvala jedan novi talas interesovanja za drevne civilizacije Afrike. Tom njenom pasioniranom i neumornom aktivizmu dugujemo i formiranje jezgra Etiopske zbirke dananjeg Muzeja afrike umetnosti, regionalnog centra za prouavanje i prezentovanje afrikih kultura u jugoistonoj Evropi.

PREDGOVOR

FOREWORD
Narcisa Kneevi ijan bjects from the Seferovi collection convey to us time and space the constants of a great world civilization, which continued to develop over a long period of history. The displayed objects, both of a sacred and profane nature, judging by the importance they held within traditional Ethiopian communities, have permanently and profoundly expanded our museum collection. The gesture made by Ambassador Nusret Seferovi and his family: his wife Emilija, daughter Nada and grandson David who bequeathed this collection to our Museum in memory of Nina Seferovi will, we are convinced, be an incentive for many known and unknown future benefactors that might step forward in the coming decades. Fortunately, we are witnesses to the fact that the vitality of our Museum has, in the past years, been reflected in the interest the public has shown to museum exhibitions, scientific, educational and experimental artistic programs. However, at the same time, an inevitable sign of the vitality of a museum is the enlargement of its collections. By observing the Seferovi collection, we are impressed by the sheer variety of art forms of the anonymous Ethiopian artist-craftsmen. It is precisely this manifold, multifarious aspect of African art that transforms the museum into a possible laboratory for researching African art. And so, as in the case of the first benefactor-founder, the family of Ambassador Zdravko Pear, a journey is completed: the fascination with a continent the object the systematic acquisition in the field the Museum bequest. Finally, as a result: a collection of 210 new objects for the Museum of African Art in 2011. The systematisation of the Seferovi collection in its entirety, alongside its specialized assessment, was a big challenge for the curators authors of studies that deal with specific topics within the Seferovi collection. The work will be continued by future researchers, masters and doctors of the Faculty of Philosophy and Faculty of Art who have already, in this short period 2011-2012, shown interest in this field. The attention coming from the academic circles is an echo of the researching and collecting work of anthropologist Nine Seferovi (1947-1991). Nina Seferovi was among those intellectuals who persevered in their mission to carefully study and document the world around them. Through the process of discovering little known cultures of Ethiopia and also through her work and the objects that she brought back with her, she initiated a new wave of interest in the ancient civilizations of Africa. It is to this passionate and tireless activism that we owe the formation of the core of today's Ethiopian collection at the Museum of African Art, the regional centre for the research and representation of African cultures in southeast Europe.
6 FOREWORD

WORD FROM THE BENEFACTOR

Nada Seferovi To the new member of our small MAA team, Nina Seferovi, in whom I personally invest much hope for the future and the new ways of achieving this vision.

... with these words Dr Zdravko Pear dedicated the exquisite Museum of African Art monograph, which he gave to my sister Nina upon her transfer to this Museum, from the Ethnographic museum where she previously worked. Unfortunately, not only was she not able to achieve all the hopes implied by the founder of this museum, but neither was she able to do so with her own professional visions that were not far from his. Moreover, the latter were the ones that made her decide to accept the offer and move to this, at the time, still very young Museum, which was bravely building its complex identity and mapping its important position in the culture of the capital city of the then still large Yugoslavia. She did not have time to do so, despite all her valiant efforts, because she was soon defeated by a ruthless illness. It is as part of at least a fraction of these hopes towards accomplishing a vision, which the two of them shared at the time, that my son David and I decided to try to contribute to by bequeathing to the Museum of African Art in Belgrade all those objects that my sister, his aunt, alongside the limitless intellectual support, help and love of our parents Emilija Mila and Nusret, collected with such dedication and erudition. In our multiethnic family which, due to my father's professional career as diplomat, led a nomadic life across three continents, the worldview of each individual from whichever of the numerous environments and regions that we came across was respected and this implied getting to know them, making the effort to understand, comprehend them, as well as take a critical and active stance towards them. Culture and art in particular, and in all their varying forms, strongly consumed our parents, so that they, understandably, from our earliest age coloured our interests and then, as expected, our life callings. In this and such a family milieu, my sister and I had the unbelievable luck to meet a great number of extraordinarily interesting and important people thanks to our parents who, each in their own way, were interesting enough to entice them into their private and not only professional midst into their home. All those people, in different ways as intellectuals, artists or politicians and fighters for a better and more just world strongly influenced the shaping of their surroundings and, many of
8 WORD FROM THE BENEFACTOR

THE CONTINUITY OF ETHIOPIAN TRADITIONAL PAINTING FROM PAST TO PRESENT*

Nina Seferovi

* This article was published in the journal Ethno-anthropological problems, notebook 6 (1989), pp. 107-118, 75 (63)

uthentic or acultural? The fallacy of this dichotomous divide: authentic = original = traditional and acultural = artificial = contemporary is, according to F. Willet, an 1 oversimplification. This until recently, generally accepted dichotomy, which rather dogmatically divided African art objects into original (those that were to an extent romantically perceived as products of unaltered or unspoiled traditional African communities created before the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century) and artificial (those artefacts that are the result of fundamental changes that took place in Africa at about the time of the 1930s and which are the aftermath of the inevitable impact of colonial penetration, imported, inflicted technology and the pressures of growing urbanisation), with the development of African studies and the rise of our tolerance with relation to the Other, has finally been resolved by taking a more liberal and wise stance that accepts as a fact that African culture (and more narrowly, art) undoubtedly has an apparent developmental continuity in which the traditional and contemporary inevitably intertwine. The careful observer will see that traditional Africa has been shattered irrevocably and that it was and still is subjected to continuous change. However, while certain environments show signs of asphyxiation and cultural involution, others have become the stage for exciting evolutions and unusual hybrid inventions. Nevertheless, considering that art does not tolerate superficiality it is impossible to claim that every authentic art is unadulterated, that is, that every acculturated work is fake. This is because as categories, authentic and acculturated cannot be absolute. It is the least that can and should be done upon approaching African art from an anthropological standpoint. Contrary to this, our approach must accept the fact that each work is authentic, because: as a cultural artefact, to a certain extent, it is an expression of value, feelings, perception, the Weltanschauung of a particular culture.2 By giving a short overview of Ethiopian traditional painting we will attempt to illustrate what are the possibilities of Africa maintaining its cultural continuity, despite it all and by means of overcoming, at the same time, destructive changes. From the sacred, by enduring a
14 THE CONTINUITY OF ETHIOPIAN TRADITIONAL PAINTING FROM PAST TO PRESENT

AT THE CROSSROADS OF ETHIOPIAN ROUTES

Dragan Mikovi

ntil recent times, most research on Ethiopian culture was written from the perspective of its imperial past and Christian tradition. However, from the middle of the last century and the fall of colonialism in Africa, following the revolution of 1974 and the demise of the Ethiopian Empire, the situation changed significantly. The limelight was cast on those ethnic groups that played a secondary role and, in turn, the cultural situation turned more complex. In a set of new circumstances among different ethnic groups and in the midst of their traditions merging, new approaches to the study and interpretation of this original and distinctive culture started appearing. Ethiopian studies were, until the revolution, mainly focused on the most developed and most mature culture and tradition: the Christian Amhara and Tigray peoples. These ethnic groups inhabit the north-western and central zones of Ethiopia, the regions of Tigray, Begemder, Goyam, Wollo and Shewa areas that are in the most direct way linked to the ancient Axum Empire. Axum appeared several hundred years B.C. gaining its power in Antiquity as a maritime, commercial force that traded with the great centres of Alexandria, Byzantium and Southern Europe, and lasted until the Islamic conquest in the 7th century. However, even after its demise, the Empire continued to live on in the memories of many Ethiopian Christians. Immediately after the overthrow of the Zagwe dynasty in 1270, which had ruled over Ethiopia at the time, Ethiopian emperors started building its legitimacy on the heritage of the Axum Empire following male descent. What is even more important, its legitimacy was built on the legacy of the legend of king Solomon, the Queen of Sheba and their son Menelik, who as the mythical emperor of Ethiopia and the founder of the Solomonic dynasty, brought the Ark of the Covenant from the Judaic Temple to Ethiopia, Axum, making it from that day forth the second Jerusalem. Accordingly, the shared name of Ethiopian Habesha Christians (Abyssinians) is linked to the name Abyssinia the name that from the Middle Ages in the Moslem world and Europe was used for Ethiopia. At its prime, Abyssinia also included parts of east Sudan, Yemen and western Saudi Arabia, north Somalia and Djibouti.
24 AT THE CROSSROADS OF ETHIOPIAN ROUTES

Selo na istoku Etiopije Village in eastern Ethiopia Photo / Foto: Nina Seferovi Hrianski praznik Christian festivity Photo / Foto: Nina Seferovi Emilija Seferovi na pijaci u Hararu Emilija Seferovi at the market in Harar Photo / Foto: Nusret Seferovi

KOLEKCIJA SLIKA SEFEROVI

Reprezent etiopske savremene umetnosti u tradicionalnom stilu Nataa Njegovanovi Risti

storijski rukopisi, manuskripti, ikone i lini magini svici iz produkcije hrianske etiopske crkve uli su u iri fokus interesovanja istoriara umetnosti, naunika i kolekcionara tek u ranim sedamdesetim godinama prolog veka, kada poinje njihova cirkulacija kao umetnikih dela u muzejima, galerijama i privatnim zbirkama. Otkrivanju etiopske umetnosti, u velikoj meri, doprinela je i savremena likovna produkcija izlobe savremenih etiopskih umetnika u Evropi i Americi i dela savremene umetnosti u tradicionalnom stilu koja su mnogo ranije prela granice Etiopije. Muzeji afrike umetnosti koji su se tokom 20. veka otvarali u svetu, sakupljali su, prouavali, eksponirali i publikovali kataloge, studije i knjige koje problematizuju trodimenzionalne forme Afrike, vrei na taj nain njihovu valorizaciju unutar svetske umetnike batine. Muzej afrike umetnosti u Beogradu, kao i pomenuti muzeji, na osnovu materijala koji poseduje u svojim zbirkama, kao i na osnovu koncepcije stalne postavke, prvenstveno je predstavljao iroki pojas zapadne i centralne Afrike oblasti juno od Sahare. S obzirom na znaaj celokupnog umetnikog stvaralatva Afrike, a u cilju kompleksnijeg sagledavanja ove produkcije, pokazalo se neophodno da se panja usmeri i na druge delove afrikog kontinenta, posebno na potpuno razliitu i samosvojnu etiopsku kulturu i civilizaciju. Zbog nedostatka relevantnih predmeta iz etiopskog stvaralatva, Muzej je priredio izlobe koje su uglavnom bile bazirane na predmetima iz privatnih zbirki. Prva izloba, realizovana 2003. godine pod nazivom Etiopija: sjaj kraljeva, svedoanstva vere, predstavila je etiopsku hriansku umetnost, dok je druga, Nakit Etiopije 2010. godine, dala uvid u produkciju nakita razliitih etnikih zajednica Etiopije. U tom periodu Muzej je putem otkupa i poklona uspeo da kolekcionira priblino sto dela slike, nakit, predmete svakodnevne upotrebe, to sveukupno sa donacijom zbirke Nine Seferovi koja obuhvata vie od dvesta predmeta, predstavlja polazite za nove izlobe umetnikog stvaralatva Etiopije. Kolekcija slikarstva zbirke Nine Seferovi sadri dvadeset osam slika koje po svom tematskom i formalnom izrazu pripadaju savremenom etiopskom stvaralatvu baziranom na
47 KOLEKCIJA SLIKA SEFEROVI

THE SEFEROVI PAINTINGS COLLECTION

An Exemplary of Ethiopian Contemporary Art in Traditional Style Nataa Njegovanovi Risti

istorical manuscripts, icons as well as personalised magic scrolls produced by the Ethiopian Christian church, became the wider focus of interest for art historians, scientists and collectors as late as the 1970s, at a time when they began to circulate as objects of art in museums, galleries and private collections. Contemporary art production contributed in large to the discovery of the art of Ethiopia exhibitions of contemporary Ethiopian artists in Europe and in America and the works of contemporary painting in traditional style that had crossed Ethiopian borders at a much earlier date. Museums of African art that started opening during 20th century across the world, collected, studied, exhibited and published catalogues, studies and books which dealt with the three-dimensional forms of Africa, thus evaluating them within the framework of the artistic heritage of the world. The Museum of African Art in Belgrade, alongside the mentioned museums of African art worldwide, based on the material in its collections, as well as the concept of its permanent exhibition, primarily represented the wider area of western and central Africa regions south of the Sahara. Considering the importance of Africa's entire artistic expression and aiming towards a more complex consideration of its production, it was necessary to focus on other parts of the African continent as well, especially the entirely different and distinctive Ethiopian culture and civilisation. Due to the lack of representative Ethiopian art objects, the Museum organised exhibitions that were mostly based on private collections. The first exhibition of this kind was organised in 2003 and titled Ethiopia Splendour of Kings, Testimony of Faith, and it presented Ethiopian Christian art. The second, Jewellery of Ethiopia was organised in 2010 and provided insight into the jewellery production of different ethnic communities in Ethiopia. During that time, the Museum managed, through purchases and gifts, to collect approximately a hundred new pieces: paintings, jewellery, everyday objects; these, alongside the Nina Seferovi donation containing two hundred pieces, form a starting point for new exhibitions of Ethiopian art. The Nina Seferovi paintings collection holds twenty eight paintings which can
48 THE SEFEROVI PAINTINGS COLLECTION

KERAMIKE FIGURE BETA IZRAEL

Emilia Eptajn

Uvod Zbirka sastavljena od pedeset jedne runo izraene keramike figure ptica, ivotinja i antropomorfnih oblika, koje nose biblijske motive sa reminiscencijama na kraljicu od Sabe, kralja Solomona i Lava plemena Juda, nastala je tokom boravka etnologa i muzeologa Nine Seferovi u Etiopiji sredinom 1980-ih godina. Za zajednicu Beta Izrael koja je tvorac ukrasnih keramikih figura, ta decenija je predstavljala istorijsku prekretnicu. Beta Izrael, kao veoma siromana etiopska zajednica koja je vekovima ivela na visoravnima severozapadne Etiopije, ostvarujui svoju egzistenciju kroz poslove koji su smatrani socijalno marginalnim, bila je verska grupa sa duboko ukorenjenim, nije preterano rei starozavetnim uverenjima. Kreirajui svoj ivot pre svega u okrilju dominantne pravoslavno-hrianske etiopske zajednice, njihovi kontakti sa spoljnim svetom bili su minimalni i, samim tim, nije im bilo poznato postojanje jevrejstva izvan granica Etiopije. Vremenom, usled sve uestalijih kontakata sa hrianskim misionarima iz Evrope, ali i sve eim misijama evropskih Jevreja, poput one koje je sproveo uveni ak Faitlovi1 poetkom 20. veka, Beta Izrael bie bespovratno izloeni vetrometini savremenog Zapadnog sveta. Kroz kontakte Beta Izraela sa evropskim Jevrejima, nisu se samo otvorila vrata svetu izvan granica Etiopije, ve i saznanju o realnom, geografski lociranom i kulturno-istorijski odreenom postojanju mesta povratka Izraelu. Mnogostrukost naziva za zajednicu o kojoj je ovde re Beta Izrael ili Falaa, u popularnoj nauci i kulturi takoe i Etiopski Jevreji ili Crni Jevreji upuuje na razliite aspekte njihovog etnikog i verskog, odnosno jevrejskog identiteta, ali takoe otkriva na koji nain se u literaturi i istraivanjima pristupalo ovoj neoekivanoj jevrejskog zajednici na afrikom kontinentu. Deo identiteta Beta Izrael zajednice, formirao se kao posledica susreta koji su sa njima imali prvi jevrejski misionari, ali i usled unih akademskih i teolokih rasprava, kako
83 KERAMIKE FIGURE BETA IZRAEL

CERAMIC FIGURINES OF THE BETA ISRAEL

Emilia Eptajn

Introduction The collection containing fifty-one handmade ceramic figurines of birds, animals and anthropomorphic forms, baring biblical motifs reminiscent of the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon and the Lion of Judah, was created in the mid 1980s, at a time when the ethnologist and museologist Nina Seferovi was in Ethiopia. For the Beta Israel community who are the creators of these decorative ceramic figurines, that decade was a historical milestone. The Beta Israel, as a very poor Ethiopian community which had been living on the highlands of north-western Ethiopia and making its subsistence through professions considered socially marginal, was also a religious group with deeply ingrained, it is not an exaggeration to say, Old Testament beliefs. Living their lives primarily under the wing of the dominant Orthodox Christian Ethiopian community, their contacts with the outer world were minimal and, therefore, knowledge of Jewry outside the boundaries of their inhabiting territories in Ethiopia, were unheard of. With time and recurring contacts with Christian missionaries from Europe and the even more frequent missions of European Jews, such as 1 those conducted by the famous Jacques Faitlovitch at the beginning of the 20th century, the Beta Israel were irreversibly exposed to the modern Western world. Beta Israel encounters with European Jews did not solely open the doors to the world outside the borders of Ethiopia, but also brought knowledge of a real, geographically located, socially and culturally existing place of return Israel. The many names Beta Israel, Falasha, or as they are also known in popular science and culture, Ethiopian Jews or Black Jews, suggest different aspects of their ethnic and religious identity, that is Jewish identity, however at the same time they reveal the ways in which this unexpected Jewish community on the African continent, was approached in literature and research. Part of the identity of the Beta Israel was formed as the result of the first Jewish missionaries' encounters with them, as well as the heated academic and theological debates
84 CERAMIC FIGURINES OF THE BETA ISRAEL

UMETNOST OBRADE METALA

Etiopski krstovi i nakit iz zbirke Seferovi Aleksandra Prodanovi Bojovi

okviru etiopske poklon-zbirke Nine Seferovi nalazi se petnaest predmeta nainjenih u bronzi i drugim legurama bakra. Meu njima su etiri hrianska krsta: dva pripadaju tipu procesijskih krstova, dok su druga dva primeri runih krstova svetenika. Ostalih jedanaest predmeta ine ogrlice, narukvice i grivne jednostavnog krunog oblika. Porodica Seferovi nabavila je ove krstove i nakit, zajedno sa drugim predmetima iz poklonjene zbirke (keramikom, slikama, tkaninama i drvenim eljevima) tokom boravka u Etiopiji 1980-ih godina. Dok krstovi potiu iz duge hrianske tradicije naroda Amhara i Tigre, gde se koriste kao deo opreme u crkvenim obredima, metalni nakit obuhvaen zbirkom Seferovi predstavlja line ukrase nomada i stoara june Etiopije (Oromo, Dinka, Hamar itd.), iji nain ivota je i u naem dobu skoro nedirnut civilizacijom i tehnolokim progresom. Hrianski krstovi i nakit iz zbirke Nine Seferovi odraavaju razliite kulturne kontekste u kojima se odvija proizvodnja dekorativnih metalnih predmeta u Etiopiji, razliite umetnike izvore koji utiu na oblikovanje tih predmeta, kao i sisteme verovanja povezane sa znaenjem i ulogom metalnih predmeta. Obrada metala kao dekorativna umetnost u Etiopiji U Etiopiji se metal poeo upotrebljavati pre vie od dve i po hiljade godina. Od najranijih vremena, tehnoloka znanja irila su se iz razvijenih centara metalurgije - Egipta i Nubije, prenosei se do Etiopske visoravni uzvodnim tokom Nila. Metalurko umee je takoe doneto sa Bliskog istoka, dopirui preko Arabijskog poluostrva i Crvenog mora.1 Najstariji dokazi o obradi metala (gvoa i bakra) pronaeni su meu preaksumskim kulturama u severnom delu Etiopije, dok se upotreba plemenitih metala pominje u prvim vekovima nove ere, u okviru drave Aksum, koja se formirala na temelju ranijih kultura. Pojava civilizacijskih centara u Etiopiji, kao i irenje velikih religija hrianstva i islama pospeili su razvoj zanata i umetnosti, doprinosei uspostavljanju obrade metala kao zanata i
113 UMETNOST OBRADE METALA

THE ART OF METALWORKING

Ethiopian Crosses and Jewellery from the Seferovi Collection Aleksandra Prodanovi Bojovi

ifteen items made of bronze and copper alloys form part of the Ethiopian collection donated by Nina Seferovi. Among them there are four Christian crosses, two of which belong to the type of processional crosses, while the other two are the examples of handheld crosses, carried by priests. The other eleven items from this donation contain necklaces, bracelets and simple circular anklets. The Seferovi family obtained these along with the other items from the donated collection, such as ceramics, paintings, cloths and wooden combs, during their stay in Ethiopia in the 1980s. While the crosses originate from the long Christian tradition of the Amhara and Tigre people, used as part of church rites paraphernalia, metal jewellery that the Seferovi collection contains represents personal ornaments of nomads and cattle-breeders of southern Ethiopia (Oromo, Dinka, Hamar, etc.), whose life style has to this age remained almost intact by civilization and technological progress. The Christian crosses and jewellery from the Nina Seferovi collection reflect the different cultural contexts in which the production of decorative metal objects takes place in Ethiopia, the different artistic sources that influence the shaping of these objects, as well as the belief systems related to the meaning and role of metal objects. Metalworking as Decorative Art in Ethiopia Metal started being used in Ethiopia more than 2,500 years ago. From early on, technological knowledge was spread from the developed metallurgy centres Egypt and Nubia upstream the Nile River, all the way to the Ethiopian Highlands. The craft of metallurgy had also been brought from the Middle East penetrating thus from the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea.1 The earliest evidence of metalworking (of iron and copper) in Ethiopia was found among the Pre-Axumite cultures in the northern part of Ethiopia, while the use of precious metals was mentioned in the early centuries of the Common Era, in the Axum state, which was formed
114 THE ART OF METALWORKING

RE RECENZENTA
Mileta Prodanovi slikar i pisac
Muzej afrike umetnosti u Beogradu jedna je od onih institucija koje ine da na grad, Beograd, ima istinski kosmopolitsku dimenziju. Nastao je na nain na koji su stvoreni mnogi muzeji u svetu, poklonom, to jest gestom kojim se materijalna dimenzija jedne privatne kolekcionarske strasti pretvara u javno dobro. Zbirka Zdravka i Vede Pear ini jezgro ovog specifinog i u regionu jedinstvenog muzeja koji je tokom svog, sada se ve moe rei i dugog trajanja, dopunjavan raznovrsnim dragocenim poklonima mnogih darodavaca. Jedna od donacija koja u znaajnoj meri upotpunjuje kolekciju Muzeja i dodaje mu jo jedan sloj, svakako jeste dar Nade Seferovi i njenog sina Davida uinjen u spomen na rano preminulu sestru, odnosno tetku Ninu. Vezanost Nine Seferovi (1947-1991) za Muzej afrike umetnosti bila je viestruka; po profesiji etnolog, ona je poslednje godine svog profesionalnog rada provela u ovoj instituciji. Izlobom Etiopska umetnost iz poklon zbirke Nine Seferovi naoj javnosti se predoava uzorito obraena zbirka od 210 predmeta iz Etiopije, koju je sakupila porodica Seferovi tokom 1980-ih godina. Ujedno se prateom publikacijom i izlobom daje mali oma profesionalnom radu Nine Seferovi. Vaan deo prezentacije ini i prikaz nastanka zbirke praen autorskim fotografijama iz Etiopije. Umetnost i civilizacija Etiopije ve su, u dva navrata, bile predmet izuzetnih izlobi Muzeja afrike umetnosti, tako da u Beogradu ve postoji publika koja poznaje i posebno voli umetnost ove zemlje. To su bile izlobe Etiopija Sjaj kraljeva, svedoanstva vere 2003. godine, sa katalokom studijom Natae Njegovanovi Risti, i Nakit Etiopije, sa studijom Aleksandre Prodanovi Bojovi, odrana 2010. godine. Ve tada je materijal koji je predmet izlobe Etiopska umetnost iz poklon zbirke Nine Seferovi bio najavljen kao legat, a sada se, nakon muzeoloke obrade, javnosti prikazuje uz dostojan propratni katalog sa tekstovima Natae Njegovanovi Risti, Aleksandre Prodanovi Bojovi, Dragana Mikovia i Emilije Eptajn. Posebnu dragocenost kataloga ini i tekst Nine Seferovi Etiopsko tradicionalno slikarstvo u kontinuitetu izmeu prolosti i sadanjosti kojim se linost kolekcionara osvetljava i sa strane njenog teorijsko-naunog aspekta. Bogato ilustrovan, katalog Etiopska umetnost iz poklon zbirke Nine Seferovi donosi tekstove izuzetnih poznavalaca ove oblasti, kustosa koje je odnegovao Muzej afrike umetnosti i koji su od ovog muzeja uinili ono to on jeste danas a to je referentna institucija prepoznata daleko van granica nae zemlje. Ukljuenje zbirke Nine Seferovi i njeno adekvatno publikovanje dodatno uvruju Muzej afrike umetnosti na toj poziciji.

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REVIEWER'S NOTE
Mileta Prodanovi painter and writer
The Museum of African Art in Belgrade is one of those institutions which constitutes that which gives our city Belgrade, a true cosmopolitan dimension. The Museum was established in a way similar to many museums across the world through bequeathal, that is, through the act by which the material dimension of a private collection is transformed into public good. The Zdravko and Veda Pear collection is the nucleus of this very specific, and in the region, unique museum that has, throughout its by now long-standing work, been expanded with various valuable gifts from numerous benefactors. One donation that adds to the Museum collection in a significant way, at the same time opening yet another level, is most certainly the gift from Nada Seferovi and her son David, in memory of the prematurely deceased sister and aunt, Nina. Nina Seferovi's links to the Museum of African Art were manifold, however as a trained ethnologist she spent the last days of her working life in this institution. The exhibition Ethiopian Art from the Donated Nina Seferovi Collection offers our public a commendably researched collection containing 210 artefacts from Ethiopia, collected by the Seferovi family during the 1980s. At the same time, the publication and exhibition pay homage to Nina Seferovi's professional work. An important part of the presentation is dedicated to the formation of the collection, which is complemented with her original photographs from Ethiopia. Ethiopian art and its civilisation, have already been the subject of exceptional exhibitions by the Museum of African Art on two occasions, therefore there is an existing audience in Belgrade that knows and particularly loves the art of this country. The exhibitions in question were Ethiopia: Splendour of Kings and Testimonies of Faith in 2003, followed by the catalogue by Nataa Njegovanovi Risti and the 2010 exhibition Jewellery of Ethiopia accompanied with the study written by Aleksandra Prodanovi Bojovi. It was through these exhibitions that objects which are the subject of the "Ethiopian Art form the Donated Nina Seferovi Collection" exhibition were announced as a bequest to the Museum, and now after their assessment, the public is presented with the accompanying catalogue with texts written by Nataa Njegovanovi Risti, Aleksandra Prodanovi Bojovi, Dragan Mikovi and Emilia Eptajn. The text written by Nina Seferovi: The Continuity of Ethiopian Traditional Painting from Past to Present is particularly valuable because through it, light is cast on the personality of the collector based on her theoretical and scientific approaches. Richly illustrated, the Ethiopian Art from the Donated Nina Seferovi Collection catalogue offers texts by exceptional experts in this area, curators nurtured by the Museum of African Art who have made it what it is today an institution of reference acknowledged far beyond the borders of our country. The addition of the Nina Seferovi collection and its adequate publication additionally reinforces such a position that the Museum of African Art holds.
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