First place winner goes to France

The embassy of France closes the curtain of the 125 year anniversary celebrations of the diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and France by announcing the winner of the creative mural paintings on the outside wall of the embassy based on France’s national motto ‘Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité’.
The competition which marked the closing of the well celebrated 125 year anniversary culminated with Mussie Belachew being named the winner of the competition. Mussie’s artwork drew inspiration from the French Delacroix’s art, fusing the classic and the contemporary to create a visual masterpiece that captured the essence of revolution and progress.

“The relations between France and Africa has been and always remain to be important for my country,” said Remi Maréchaux, ambassador of France to Ethiopia.
“Ethiopia has a unique place in this rich relation as it is our oldest partner in the continent. For the past year, we have been doing a series of celebrations to commemorate the 125 years of our bilateral relations, and this last event was dedicated to Ferensay Legasion,” the ambassador added.
The project was taken on by 31 artists and stretched across the Ferensay Legasion with each creative work taking about a month to capture their imaginations on the wall. The project is said to be the largest mural project in Addis Ababa with over 160 meters of wall space already painted. Each artist worked on a wall space of 10 square meters.
According to the embassy, winners received prizes based on the result judges allotted to each artist after carefully pondering each art piece in relation to the theme, said the organizers. Judges were mainly sponsors of the mural art project, and include BGI Ethiopia, Kadisco, Yasser Bagersh CEO of Cactus Communication and Teguest Yilma President of the Alliance Ethio-Francaise.
Winners of the 5th, 4th and 3rd place, Basleal Mamo, Solomon Kebede, and Tesfa Mariam were offered a group exhibition at the Alliance Ethio-Française while second place holder Mahlet Negedeyesus is offered an individual exhibition organized by the Alliance Ethio-Française.
Mussie Belachew winner of the first prize of the competition will take part in a week long art training program in France, all-expense paid by BGI Ethiopia.
The French Embassy kicked off this yearlong celebration of 125 years of France-Ethiopia l

ong-standing diplomatic relations in March 2022. For more than a century the two countries have shared bilateral ties that were formally cemented 125 years ago when Leonce Lagard, then French governor of Somaliland and later Duke of Entoto, signed a treaty with Emperor Menelik II recognizing diplomatic relations between the two countries.