This is 12&12, an audible day in the life in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. 12 hours of day, and 12 hours of night, which coincide quite exact with the sunrise and sunset, the main reason why the Ethiopian time count starts at 6 in the morning, meaning at 7 there is 1 hour of sunshine, etc. Which procedure repeats in the evening, when sun sets at 6, so at 7 there is 1 hour of darkness, etc.
12&12 tells the story in audio-only of a day in the life by having one subject for one hour, be it sport, nightlife, work, recreation and a lot of other activities happening in a multi million inhabitants metropole in East-Africa. There are no voice-overs, hardly any edits, and all material was recorded using two microphones only, at the time of the day it is transmitted, adjusted for daylight saving time.
The non-radio version of 12&12 was one of the first, if not *the* first sound exhibition in Addis Ababa. The daily hours were exposed at the Goethe Institute, and the nightly hours at the Alliance Française, both in Addis Ababa in 2011, for whose kind support the artists wished to express his thanks. Special thanks also goes to Melaku Belay of Club Fendika and Kidus ‘Vemund’
Berhanu, for invaluable assistance.
Jeroen Visser, Zürich, Wednesday February 8th, 2017
Day Hour 9
02-03 pm
Timket Janmeda
Jan 18 2008
Timket is the Christian Holy Day of Epiphany, where the Ark of the Covenant (or one of it’s obfuscating replica’s), claimed to be in possession by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, is taken out to the Janmeda field, where tenthousands of people gather to celebrate the day with dances and medieval games.
Day Hour 10 – Oildrum Hammer Chisel
03-04 pm
Mercato Walk
May 17 2008
A soundwalk through Mercato, which used to be one of Africa’s biggest day markets, and some sort of recycling machine at the same time: where junk in all kinds of forms go in on one side, varying from plastic bottles to car parts, all kind of utensils like little ovens, sieves, spoons, containers etc, come out on the other side.
Day Hour 11 – Arsenal <-> United
04-05 pm
Jan Meda Sport
Jan 13 2011
A late afternoon mood, after school/before dark, at the same place as where Timket is celebrated. Janmeda is a field as big as 20 football fields together, so there’s a lot of kids around there, doing just that, playing football.
Day Hour 12 – PiassaPiassa/AratKilo
05-06 pm
Juice Bet Arat Kilo
May 16 2008
The evening rush hour when it is starting to get dark. Before going home or out there is just enough time to drink a revitalizing fruit juice in one of the juice bars. This was an especially good one, all freshly made out of the best fruits available! My favorite is hambashok, but a mix of papaya/pineapple will also do fine. JUMBO!
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