African Arts Gallery

Less famous in African art than the terracotta Djenne, this piece comes directly from a field of excavation of the region of Bankoni, area between Bamako and Ségou in Mali, and which gives its name to the play.

It is a seated figure with minimalist shapes, whose lower limbs have feet like oversized palms. The arms are truncated on both sides of a chest. Under the face a small protuberance could be a beard. The sketchy face has enormous ears, a recurring feature in African sculpture, related to the perception of the spiritual world. A ridge sketch emphasizes his skull. What could have been a penis is absent today. The piece, which was probably modeled with no tools other than the fingers, has undergone archaeological repairs. The whole is covered with an orange patina, ...