This visual was designed by HERALBONY based on the artwork "balance of movement" by Ethiopian artist Mr. Tesfaye, who was a finalist in the HERALBONY Art Prize 2024.
HERALBONY is a creative company whose mission is to "Radiate Your Colors", aiming to transform the image of disability and create a new culture grounded in welfare.
Joining forces together since 2024, JICA, committed to building a society where everyone, including persons with disabilities, can live with dignity, and HERALBONY has been advancing efforts to co-create new value to society.
Tesfaye Bekele Beri
Balance of Movement
2024
Acrylic on canvas
2000×1650×33mm
Tesfaye Bekele Beri is an Ethiopian artist based in Addis Ababa. He graduated with a degree in Art Education from the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design at Addis Ababa University in 2010, and later pursued an MFA at the same institution in 2016. Tesfaye's work explores imagined spaces that serve as environments for the human body. His paintings reflect the rhythm and repetition of movement, and textures of his painting mirror his own physical navigation across different materials and formats. Adopting an experimental and interdisciplinary approach, he integrates painting with techniques such as press printing, splattering, dripping, scratching, pouring. This tactile process reflects his ongoing search for transformation and new visual language through his art. He currently teaches in the Department of Interdisciplinary Visual Arts at the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, and actively participates in exhibitions and artistic programs internationally.
In this painting, Tesfaye searches for order within complex systems through a contemplative process that reflects his personal relationship with time and space. By zooming in and out of the physical world, he takes time to enrich the piece with intricate details, allowing depth and richness to emerge. The piece is also rooted in nostalgia and memories of his childhood. It captures the inner conflict and physical tension in movement. These struggles are mapped through the lines and forms traced across the canvas. Often working with the canvas laid flat on the ground, he allows his gestures to become part of the work itself. The endlessly branching, microscopic details are inspired by his study of the human body--especially the way nerves and synapses transmit electric signals.
JICA, in charge of administering Japan's ODA, is one of the world's largest bilateral aid agencies. JICA supports socioeconomic development in developing countries through flexible combination of various types of assistance methods, such as Technical Cooperation, Finance and Investment Cooperation, and Grants. It operates in approximately 150 countries and regions of the world.
