"The North Face is a striking reflection on the contradictions embedded in place and memory. The
painting’s bright background, easily associated with softness and innocence, becomes an unsettling
backdrop for a subject charged with tension—the ongoing struggles in Ethiopia’s northern region. This
part of the country, celebrated for its historical and cultural significance, is both a symbol of national pride
and a terrain marked by war, displacement, and deep political fractures. The title itself functions as a
double entendre, referencing both a global brand and the geopolitical weight of the North as a site of
admiration and devastation.

Like Picasso’s Guernica (1937), which abstracted the violence of the Spanish Civil War into a fragmented
composition, The North Face fuses figuration and abstraction to reflect a reality that is layered,
unresolved, and fraught with opposing forces. It does not dwell solely on destruction but acknowledges
resilience and the lasting imprint of history. Tegene’s use of color, form, and metaphor creates a paradox—playful yet unsettling, familiar yet elusive—urging viewers to look beyond the surface and
confront the ways history continues to shape the present." 

Excerpt from curatorial text.