The True Cross

In the 4th century, Empress Eleni (Saint Helena), mother of Emperor Constantine in Rome, received a divine vision. The vision instructed her to witness a great bonfire made out of wood and incense, and follow the path of its smoke to uncover a hidden relic buried in the ground.

She followed the vision and lit the fire. The wind carried its smoke across the hills of the Holy Land. There, beneath the earth, she discovered what many believe to be the True Cross, buried for centuries. Ethiopian tradition tells us that a fragment of this cross was brought to Gishen Mariam Monastery in the northern highlands, where it is kept safe to this day.

The True Cross is a series of motion portraits and films created by the Ethiopian art collective Yatreda. Volume 7 of The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Remembrance of Things Future initiative — in which contemporary artists experimenting with blockchain technology are invited to respond to works in the museum’s permanent collection — The True Cross is Yatreda’s homage to a historic thirteenth century bronze cross from the Zagwe Dynasty, within LACMA’s encyclopedic collection. Made in support of LACMA’s Art and Technology Lab in collaboration with Cactoid Labs, The True Cross is an intimate exploration into the origins behind a mystical vision at the roots of Ethiopian history.