Recipes of the Gods
aesthetic fetish
3 February – 10 May 2009
east suspended gallery
collections ticket
curator : Nanette Jacomijn Snoep
The exhibition invites the European public to discover a category of African artefacts hardly known to them : the « shapeless » artefects.
These are divinational artefacts, often called « fetishes » in which the human form is concealed or not recognized.
Metamorphoses, additions, successive layers draw a memory on these artefacts, a mark that only a soothsayer knows how to decipher.
scenographic principles
The exhibition deals with the different ways of representing the invisible without having to resort to human representation : the most harmless appearance of an artefact, a shapeless mass, a bulging sack, a horn…, may sometimes be more sacred, more important than a recognizable anthropomorphic sculpture.
Recipe of the Gods is an assembly of artefacts and materials : the exhibition draws its inspiration from that of an assembly of contemporary art, as well as the altar of a divine African. Logically, it follows a modular course : « shapeless », it can be read and covered in all senses, in a manner either transverse (across all the artefact-lights which make up a « red thread » for the visitor) or thematic (sequence by sequence).
This freedom of approach corresponds perfectly to the architectural space of the exhibitions file, on the East suspended gallery.
Scenography will play on spaces – irregular spacing between the display cabinets, diversity in stand heights -, and on formats – the great massive bowl will be presented near to a thin stake, surmounted by a small tuft of hair.
"shapeless" exhibit in African art
Exhibitions of L'informe contemporary art.Mode d’emploi at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1996 and Arte Povera, Antiform, Sculpture at Bordeaux in 1982 make up two references for Recipe of the Gods.
No exhibition at the present time has been devoted to this category of « shapeless » artefacts that relate to African art. The African Accumulative Sculpture : Power and Display exhibition presented in 1974 in New York, which highlighted the theme of accumulation in African art, finds there a little of its own echo. On the other hand, even if the recent Art and Oracle exhibition at the MET in New York revealed divinatory practices, it presented few or no « shapeless » works of art.
The shapeless aspect in African art thus gives originality to this exhibition. It presents a neglected aspect of African art that is closer to Arte Povera (Poor Art) or « Supports-Surfaces » and thus allows the establishment of links with contemporary art.
visit the exhibition as a family
For the duration of the exhibition, Le secret des fétiches / The secret of the fetishes gamebook allows children (7 and older) to discover the exhibition through games. This gamebook is free of charge and is available in the museum’s entrance hall and at the beginning of the exhibition...
At the end of the exhibition route, children are invited to draw their own “fetish object” based on what they have just seen on display in the exhibition and to drop the drawings into the box provided...
With parents’ approval, a selection of drawings will be put online on the museum’s website.
open the drawing box and see a selection of children’s drawings!
about the exhibition: the Magical object workshop
the shaman, Nganga, of the Kongo people of Central Africa uses magical objects called Minksi to protect people and help them to resolve their problems.
spiked with nails and blades, the magical statues are sometimes a bit frightening, but in fact help the Nganga to banish sorcerers and punish evildoers.
finding inspiration in the magical objects of Central Africa, children from 3 to 6 years old taking part in the workshop are invited to create their own “Magical object”.
starting in February, Magical object workshop lasting 1 ½ hours (for children aged 3 to 6)
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