African Arts Gallery

The African mask called "racing", Gunye ge, actor of social order among the Dan, has large eye sockets and offers regular features and a protruding mouth. He is also embellished with a raffia beard and a finely braided hairstyle.
Height on base: 38 cm.
The masks equipped with round orbits ( gunye ge), facilitating vision, are part of the set of northern Dan masks and are used for racing events during of the dry season. The zapkei ge, also equipped with circular orbits, are responsible for preventing fires by watching over domestic fires. For the Dan, or Yacouba, living in the west of the Ivory Coast and in Liberia, the “dü” force which would animate the world would manifest itself in the sculpted masks. It is in this way that she seeks to bring knowledge to man in order to support him, by first using the channel of dreams. The spirits then indicate how to name the mask they wish to see made. These masks of different types are endowed with social, spiritual and political functions, often changing over time.
ref. : "Art of Sub-Saharan Africa" ​​C. Mullen Kreamer