Yatreda ያጥሬዳ is a family-based collective of artists from Ethiopia, led by creative director Kiya Tadele, who create digital artwork in the style of tizita—a profound sense of nostalgia and longing for the past. Combining childhood musings, oral history, and folk tales with the rich history and legends cherished by modern Ethiopians, Yatreda’s work invites viewers to contemplate the cyclical nature of history.

In a fusion of tradition and innovation, Yatreda mints their artwork on the blockchain, employing a 21st-century approach to preserving history. This peer-to-peer, shared online record of transactions enables them to immortalize African legends, folk dances, and endangered cultural styles for eternity, reflecting their mission to rediscover Africa’s original self once again. Their art bridges the ancient and the contemporary, ensuring that Ethiopia’s cultural legacy is both celebrated today and safeguarded into the future.

Artist Sam Spratt eloquently states in the Taschen book "On NFTs, Taschen, 2024":

"Vitalik Buterin’s Time Magazine interview quote criticizing million-dollar monkey cartoons being minted on the blockchain he co-founded is often used to disparage NFTs. Lesser known is Vitalik’s next quote, in which he cites his respect directly for Yatreda, an Ethiopian art collective, as a viable use of NFT artwork minted on blockchain technology.

In this nascent NFT world crowded with empty art and outright scams, Yatreda stands out like a beacon of hope for those early, bright-eyed Ethereum developers who sought to change the world. Yatreda, which began in their humble front yard in Addis Ababa, has become one of the most powerful and pure expressions of digital fine art in our space.

Ethiopia, the only African nation to militarily resist and defeat European colonial penetration, has always stood out with its regality and pride. It is notable that Yatreda echoes this sovereign and proud vision, relying on no crutches of victimhood. Working in the Ethiopian style of tizita, African legends, folk dances, and endangered cultural styles are preserved for eternity on the blockchain.

Solomon, a historic figure whose values and philosophies are still heralded and woven into the world’s elite institutions, was once so enamored by the gifts and wisdom of a beautiful Ethiopic queen that for a transient moment in time, he married her and fathered a son: Menelik. In Yatreda’s “Profile of Queen of Sheba,” Kiya Tadele adorns the legend of Solomon’s lesser-known wife and takes a haunting single breath a printed page cannot show. This exhale is spent energy to hold what may be a blip to a rewritten history, but with a mastery of light and the greatest values of this new technology, Yatreda breathes life into the legends waiting for this moment to be preserved."