The research of Jermay Michael Gabriel investigates the historical, symbolic, and cultural relationships between Venice and Ethiopia through an interdisciplinary perspective connected to global history, critical studies, and the production of imaginaries.
Starting from his Italian-Ethiopian-Eritrean identity, he considers Venice not only as a place of origin, but as an epistemological space in which centuries of exchanges between the Mediterranean, East Africa, and Europe have been layered and sedimented. The project seeks to move beyond a reading limited to Italian colonialism by analyzing deeper genealogies of contacts, representations, and imaginaries that precede the modern colonial era.
Through archives, maps, manuscripts, iconographies, and museum collections, he explores the ways in which Ethiopia has been constructed and narrated within European culture, from the myth of Prete Gianni to Venetian religious and commercial networks. The research also places shared symbols—such as the Lion of Saint Mark and the Lion of Judah—into dialogue, examining images and objects as dispositifs that remain active in the present.