African Arts Gallery

Ex-Swiss African art collection.
African masks of bobo, Bwa, Kurumba and Mossi, living in Burkina Faso, frequently take over and combine stylized elements borrowed from humans, animals or insects. It is the spirits of nature that are supposed to determine the well-being and prosperity of an individual, and adversity will be seen as the result of neglect scars of collective rites. It is therefore during various celebrations that the mask will personify a spirit of nature or that of an ancestor in order to influence the daily life of the members of the ethnic group. They appear to honor the deceased during funeral rites, and to escort souls to the realm of the dead. They also occur during agricultural festivals in order to ensure the progression of the seasons, so during the initiation rites they will introduce young people to the responsibilities of adult life. Masks are the object of family pride, and thus a way to enhance its prosperity and influence within the group. It is in a spirit of competition that everyone will seek to highlight the danced performances of his mask, and to highlight the ornamental motifs of his surface. This mask embodying a bush animal is sometimes adorned with horns. Here they are replaced by a crenellated ridge curved backwards, the top of which is reinforced by a strip of animal skin, tightly coiled. Surrounding the face, a checkered frieze recalls the scarifications of the ethnic group. It is in diagonals that they also appear on the cheeks. On the face remains some yellowed residue of kaolin. The tip of the nose is abraded.