The Amharic phrase ዐይነ-ውሃ (ayne wuha) has the general meaning of likeness, spirit, or essence, but it can also refer more specifically to a source of water. The word «ayne» translates as «the eye of», and «wuha» means «water».

Eye of a Water – ዐይነ-ውሃ by Robel Temesgen imagines the exhibition space of Nitja as a riverbed. The artist has covered the walls with paintings on hundreds of goatskin parchments. Visitors are invited to complete the work through their own presence, as human bodies of water.

Temesgen engages with water not simply as a resource, but as a relational being. Eye of a Water – ዐይነ-ውሃ asks what it means to be shaped by water, to speak with it, or to think through its rhythms and flows, and considers how such questions might take form through artistic practice, ritual and gesture.

The exhibition is the result of Robel Temesgen’s long-lasting engagement with the Blue Nile and the culmination of his PhD project Practising Water: of rituals and engagements at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO). In parallel with the show at Nitja, an exhibition in the Guttormsgaard Archive in Blaker presents Temesgen’s engagement with the Glomma River.

Curated by Ellef Prestsæter and Kathrine Wilson, the exhibition is produced with support from KHiO.