Maqeda is a project by Gabriella Ghermandi. For the latest news, visit the blog.

Maqeda is the Ethiopian name of the Queen of Sheba, who according to the epic legend of Ethiopia went to the court of the Emperor Solomon to propose a challenge on mutual knowledge. And Maqeda is the name that Gabriella Ghermandi has chosen for her new project, dedicated to female figures, which aims to “universalise” the myth of the Queen of Sheba and of the other figures of Ethiopian history and mythology, and bring them out in experience of women, men and girls of different origins who will participate in the writing and serigraphy printing laboratories foreseen by the project itself.
Presented by the Bolognese association Andlay, leader of the project, Maqeda has been selected and will be financed by the Migrarti call, of Mibact (Italian Ministery of Culture)

But let’s move to the project. Maqeda is an artistic, cultural and anthropological journey that, through a shared path of music, images and narration, proposes a reflection on the feminine and its figures.

Maqeda develops between Ethiopia and Italy (Bologna, Nonantola and Verona) and provides:

  1. the production of 6 pieces of music by the Italo-Ethiopian group “Atse Tewodros Project”;
  2. the realization of two laboratories in Bologna and Nonantola, one of writing and one of serigraphy printing for first and second generation migrants;
  3. three concerts by Atse Tewodros project (Bologna, Nonantola and Verona);
  4. a jamsession with young Veronese musicians;
  5. the production of a video on the entire route.

The new musical pieces will be produced in an artistic tamdem between Ethiopia and Italy, through direct collaborations between Ethiopian composers and lyricists and Ethiopian and Italian musicians. Gabriella will undertake a trip to Ethiopia in April with the aim of recovering songs of women of different ethnic groups (Gamo, Kunama and Oromo / Arussi), then transcribing them with the composers of the different ethnic groups and reworking them in a modern reinterpretation respecting tradition with the ensemble of Atse Tewodros Project.

The aim of the writing workshops is to collect inner voices and images of the “queens” and female figures that are particularly inspiring in the biographical and cultural experience of the participants in the workshops.
The two laboratories of writing and serigraphy printing will be developed through a complete path that goes from the orality to writing, drawing, printing and manual confusion of a choral book. The images produced during the workshop will be part of the shows / concert that the musicians of Atse Tewodros Project will hold in June in Bologna, in Nonantola and in Verona. The workshop path will be intimately connected to the reflection on the “royalty”, to the feminine strength, to the mythical representation of the female flocks, and will intertwine to the musical production of the ensemble Atse Tewodros Project.

The work on writing and serigraphy printing will involve three different groups made up of people attending the Pilastro women’s school, the CPIA of Bologna and the school of “Italian for all” of Nonantola. The presentation and writing part will be edited by CESD and CPIA (Center for Adult Education) for the part that will take place in Bologna and by the “Italian School for all” of the Giunchiglia 11 association of Nonantola for the part that will be held in Nonantola.

The work on serigraphy printing will be curated by the ELSE association of Rome, which for over 7 years has been organizing artistic serigraphy workshops with migrants, children, educators, second generations, accompanied in a journey of memories that, little by little, transfer in new sounds and in new words to learn, they are facilitated in learning the Italian language.