The winning art work by Ethiopian architect Noh Balcha. (Courtesy photo)
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Saturday, April 11th, 2015
New York (TADIAS) — Noh Balcha, a 30-year-old architect from Ethiopia, has won the 2015 African Digital Art Challenge prize. Balcha received the most votes via Facebook to beat the seven top competitors. Second place was awarded to Fatoumata Tioye, a 22 year old photographer and artist from Mali.
Noh and Fatoumata will now be headed to Morocco in May to present their work at the annual “Innovation Prize for Africa” conference where they will join innovators from across the continent expected to attend the inaugural award ceremony at the event.
The competition was organized by the non-profit organization the African Innovation Foundation (AIF) and featured contestants who used photography, graphic design and other visual productions to “showcase the innovation ecosystem” in Africa.
“A heartfelt congratulations to all the finalists and a big thank you to all those who decided to vote,” AIF said. “Their work will be shown at the IPA awards event venue in Morocco, and they will have the chance to continue working with AIF on the Foundation’s creative material.”
Noh describes his digital art submission as a reflection “into the future and seeing a very different Africa where we have taken care of all the difficulties and finally started thinking of other goals to pursue for the first time in our history.”
Below is the final Facebook vote tally:
Noh Balcha – 826 likes
Fatoumata Tioye – 667 likes
Kunle Afolayan’s I Makoko floating school – 272 likes
Mariona Lloreta – 72 likes
Ntombi Kunye – 41 likes
Bumba studio – 30 likes
NJB Zebu v 3 EN – 2 likes
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Related:
Ethiopian Architect Noh Balcha: A Finalist for 2015 African Digital Art Challenge
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