Eventual Return: What to Take Back deals with what it means to carry material and immaterial luggage when moving between places shaped by vastly different contexts. The project reflects on how journeys transform both the traveler and the host environment, and what remains or returns as knowledge, memory, or residue.

The work draws inspiration from Abba Gorgoryos (1595–1658), the Ethiopian monk and scholar who collaborated with the German orientalist Hiob Ludolf to document Ethiopia’s history in Geʽez and Amharic. Gorgoryos died in a shipwreck near Aleppo on his long-awaited return to Ethiopia. The work reimagines his final journey by reconstructing the contents of his lost luggage, objects that might have traveled with him, and placing them in dialogue with my own imagined baggage.

The installation consists of thirty-six items arranged in and around Ageligil and Muday, traditional woven and leather-covered containers used for food, clothing, and manuscripts. These objects, part Ethiopian heritage, part European encounter, form a layered meditation on what we take, leave behind, or transform through travel. By intertwining historical reconstruction with contemporary reflection, Eventual Return: What to Take Back examines the ethics of cultural exchange and the responsibilities of being both guest and messenger across worlds.