MASKS OF ANGOLA

Description

For 80 years, the MEN houses collections gathered during the first two missions in Angola Swiss scientists, including 55 masks that include almost all existing types in Cokwe, Ngangela and Nyemba. Among these is an ephemeral and fragile majority of buildings that not only were not destroyed at the end of the ritual, as is often the case, but resisted the hazards of a hazardous transportation and survived the malice times. Red ocher and kaolin braided fabric and paper strips still frankly contrast on the black resin covering a bark cloth that sets a frame of branches. Not content to describe the pieces one by one, illustrated with photographs, records in bringing together all possible documentation, the authors have further sought to find and bring together in one body all specimens of all dispersed over time, and to judge the diversity of both traditional achievements of the 30 productions that already intended for tourists. If the collection has not enriched Lisbon, specimens from the two missions are scattered in Basel, Geneva, Zurich, Bern and to Rotterdam. The important foregoing catalog begins by recalling both MSSA, analyzing in particular critically the story of the second mission, “Countries and Peoples”. The difficult question is not evaded the African expatriate in the art heritage label fueling a speculative market and often ambiguous position of the country faced with inevitable economic priorities, as torn between the need to both do not lose their roots and fear of missing modernity. Except for rooms reserved for entertainment, masks mainly occur in connection with the initiation, these long trials that make access both boys and girls in the membership integral part of their community. An analysis is made of and their highly symbolic roles prior to the detailed typology of 18 forms represented in the collections of MEN. After a first volume entitled “Signs of Power” published in 1992 in the series “MEN Collection”, this new publication comes as revealing for both specialists and the general public, still too little known resources of Neuchâtel institution. Summary: Scientific missions in Angola. Collections of old and new Africa. Travel to the beginnings of life: initiation rituals in Cokwe and Ngangela. Initiation masks. Angolan masks MEN. Catalogue (Fact sheets, masks in other institutions).