"Kota Ancestors" Exhibition
Vallois America
This event has ended.
On the occasion of his participation in the inaugural edition of the AOA ( Africa Oceania Americas ), May 12 to May 14, 2011, Bernard Dulon presents the exhibition "Kota Ancestors."
This exhibition gathers twenty major pieces of Kota Art from the nineteenth Century culled from prestigious collections. They will then travel to Paris to be shown at the Bernard Dulon Gallery in Paris, in exclusivity for the Parcours des Mondes Gallery Walk to be held from the 6th to the 11th of September 2011 in Saint Germain des Prés.
It is probably due to their constant migrations that the great majority of populations from Gabon, Southern Cameroon and Northern Congo preserved their ancestral relics in small baskets made of bark or woven willow, easy to carry and on top of which an anthropomorphic representation was sometimes placed.
The tribes of the Kota Obamba group would place a copper and brass plated wooden figure on top of their ossuaries which then took the generic name of mbulu ngulu (literally basket with a figure) but each was given its own name, thus implying an actual attempt at physical portrait.
Kept in secrecy in small huts outside the village, the mbulu ngulu were only accessible to the highest and most senior initiates authorized to consult the ancestors during specific private or public ceremonies.
[Kota Reliquary Figure, Mahongwe people, Gabon (19th century) Wooden frame with copper and brass plates Height: 45 cm]
Media
Schedule
from May 11, 2011 to June 11, 2011
Opening Reception on 2011-05-12 from 16:00