El Anatsui, XOHANAMI, Three editions to benefit museum in progress, 2026
More about The Editions (PDF)
In 2025 EI Anatsui was selected to create the twenty-eighth Safety Curtain, a longstanding project by museum in progress for the Vienna State Opera, which since 1998 has transformed the 176 m² safety curtain into one of Europe's most signiflcant recurring public art commissions.
Anatsui’s monumental image XOHANAMI graces the main stage, viewable by audiences before and after performances and during intermissions from September 30, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Translating from Ewe as “receive our song”, XOHANAMI promotes materials, forms, and symbols drawn from the artist's quotidian environment, in poignant contrast to the gilded opera house in which it hangs.
In generous support of museum in progress's continuing work, Anatsui has made three striking prints – Male, Female and Head. These highly collectible editions are intimate counterparts to the Safety Curtain project. While the curtain's massed crowd operates at an architectural scale to directly confront the opera audience, the lifesize prints isolate the human presence, offering a more intimate, one-to-one register yet that carries the conceptual weight and resonance of the larger ensemble. Developed from individual wooden figures belonging to the sculptural installation that is the basis for the monumental Safety Curtain image, each resulting woodcut asserts a distinct identity with subtle variations in structure, surface, and proportion that further denote character and gender.
Produced at Chavanne & Pechmann's renowned print studio in Apetlon, the editioned works translate Anatsui's sculptural language of repetition and material memory into a concentrated graphic register where each image is printed in multiple variations with a joyous play of colour.
BROWSE ALL EDITION VARIATIONS
Edition 1: XOHANAMI – Male
Format: 184 x 87 cm
Edition: 20 copies, signed, 4 variations
Paper: Hahnemühle, 350g/m²
Print: Chavanne & Pechmann
Subscription price: € 7000 (excl. VAT)
XOHANAMI – Male Variations (PDF)
Edition 2: XOHANAMI – Female
Format: 184 x 87 cm
Edition: 20 copies, signed, 4 variations
Paper: Hahnemühle, 350g/m²
Print: Chavanne & Pechmann
Subscription price: € 7000 (excl. VAT)
XOHANAMI – Female Variations (PDF)
Edition 3: XOHANAMI – Head
Format: 100 x 78,5 cm
Edition: 60 copies, signed, 12 variations
Paper: Hahnemühle, 300g/m²
Print: Chavanne & Pechmann
Subscription price: € 3000 (excl. VAT)
XOHANAMI – Head Variations (PDF)