Semone Himamat: Holy Week is a performance-based project that reinterprets the spiritual intensity of the Ethiopian Orthodox Passion Week within a contemporary art context. Drawing on the tradition of public rituals performed by monks in Addis Ababa, where urban spaces are temporarily transformed into communal sites of prayer and reflection, the performance took place over a four-day engagement in Tromsø, Norway, during Easter week.

Dressed in sheepskin and rosemary beads, I performed acts of self-flagellation in public spaces, including the harbor, city streets, and in front of Tromsø Domkirke in Tromsø, Norway. The project investigates the social dynamics of public space, spiritual embodiment, and the tension between cultural familiarity and estrangement. By transposing a deeply rooted Ethiopian ritual into a Nordic urban setting, Semone Himamat invites reflection on public spaces, gathering, and the transformative potential of ritual in unfamiliar contexts.