Synopsis
The film follows a circular timeline, mirroring the daily rhythms of Dire Dawa. The project expands beyond film into a textile installation, an abstract tent that houses the story and translates visual memory into physical form. It becomes a capsule of place, a piece of Dire Dawa that can move across geographies while still carrying its weight, its rhythm, its story.
Dire is a place where trade, migration, and memory blur the lines between cultural nuances, where identity is not fixed but continually shaped and reframed through collective experience.
Dire is a place where trade, migration, and memory blur the lines between cultural nuances, where identity is not fixed but continually shaped and reframed through collective experience.
About
An architect by training, a visual artist by practice, Rediet’s work moves across textiles and film, working at the intersection of memory, migration, and material culture. She builds archives, visual and tactile, that document how people shape and reframe cultural identity through everyday rituals, dress, and aesthetic choices. Rooted in Ethiopia but shaped by broader trade networks and migrant narratives, her work explores the emotional and political weight of adornment, beauty practices, and architecture as expressions of survival, resistance, and transformation.
In textiles, she works with both wearable pieces and large-scale installations. Her approach draws on traditional weaving techniques, henna patterns, and vernacular design languages to translate cultural memory into form. These textiles act as living archives, carriers of movement, resilience, and layered meanings. They often blur the boundaries between garment and artifact, equally at home on a body or a wall, allowing for storytelling that is both intimate and collective.
In film, Rediet is drawn to non-linear, experiential storytelling. She uses experimental cinematography and found footage to reflect how memory works, fragmented, layered, and emotional. Her recent visual projects trace the influence of trade and beautification rituals along the Ethiopian-Djibouti railway, using the camera as a ghost-like observer that drifts through homes, marketplaces, and rituals. Rather than relying on linear narrative, her films place visuals and voice in parallel or opposing motion, challenging viewers to engage with cultural histories through sensation and rhythm.
Architecture and urban studies also inform her process. She is interested in how space is modified through ritual, care, and occupation, how people make homes, adorn their environments, and express identity through the built and worn world. Her research often involves staying in specific communities for extended periods, allowing her to work collaboratively and slowly, building relationships that shape both the form and content of the final work.
Across all media, Rediet is drawn to moments where cultural knowledge is passed through hands, woven, wrapped, tattooed, or told. Her aim is not to fix identity but to witness how it flows and adapts through movement, trade, and imagination. She approaches her work as a bridge between past and present, between mediums, and between personal story and collective memory.
In textiles, she works with both wearable pieces and large-scale installations. Her approach draws on traditional weaving techniques, henna patterns, and vernacular design languages to translate cultural memory into form. These textiles act as living archives, carriers of movement, resilience, and layered meanings. They often blur the boundaries between garment and artifact, equally at home on a body or a wall, allowing for storytelling that is both intimate and collective.
In film, Rediet is drawn to non-linear, experiential storytelling. She uses experimental cinematography and found footage to reflect how memory works, fragmented, layered, and emotional. Her recent visual projects trace the influence of trade and beautification rituals along the Ethiopian-Djibouti railway, using the camera as a ghost-like observer that drifts through homes, marketplaces, and rituals. Rather than relying on linear narrative, her films place visuals and voice in parallel or opposing motion, challenging viewers to engage with cultural histories through sensation and rhythm.
Architecture and urban studies also inform her process. She is interested in how space is modified through ritual, care, and occupation, how people make homes, adorn their environments, and express identity through the built and worn world. Her research often involves staying in specific communities for extended periods, allowing her to work collaboratively and slowly, building relationships that shape both the form and content of the final work.
Across all media, Rediet is drawn to moments where cultural knowledge is passed through hands, woven, wrapped, tattooed, or told. Her aim is not to fix identity but to witness how it flows and adapts through movement, trade, and imagination. She approaches her work as a bridge between past and present, between mediums, and between personal story and collective memory.