In an attempt to understand the role of coffee in creating community, Vincent sought out to explore coffee culture in Addis Ababa. He spent his residency getting to know people throughout the city, motivated by the desire to not only understand coffee culture and community building, but also to document in order to share with his community in Bandung, in an effort to combat the common stereotypes transmitted by mass media/social media about Ethiopia. He used photography and the collection of different objects popular in the city to document his work and he organized, along with Yen Duong, a dialogue session on ethics in documentation with journalists and artists in Addis Ababa. Additionally, as “patita” is an Indonesian word that describes a food event, Vincent prepared an Indonesian dish and invited people to gather and break bread.
iceaddis is Ethiopia’s first innovation hub & tech startup incubator and, as an open community workspace in central Addis Ababa, functions as a vibrant meeting and connection point for the local startup, media technology and creative industries scenes. iceaddis’ main mission is to contribute to Ethiopia’s economic growth by stregthening partnerships between researchers, developers, entrepreneurs, creative workers and customers and by promoting local technological solutions to the public.