Of Interest to the General Public

Inspired by the history of the 1868 Napier expedition and the burning of the palace fortress at Magdala, Of Interest to the General Public is a ­narration by the Ethiopian writer and photographer Maaza Mengiste. She combines photographs and text to re-imagine the journey of the stunning and elaborately made royal cloak from Ethiopia – out of battle, through fire, over mountains to cross the waters into Berlin, Germany.

The œuvre of Maaza Mengiste, who currently lives in New York, is composed from voices and stories that have been excluded, from gaps that seem inexplicable, from images, objects and places that pulse with pasts unresolved.