The Breath of the Spirits. Sacred art of the Ogôoué basin.
Amateur Editions| N° d'inventaire | 22406 |
| Format | 25 x 31 |
| Détails | 264 p., bound in cloth under dust jacket. |
| Publication | Paris, 2012 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782859175252 |
Unlike some regions of Africa that saw the establishment of large kingdoms, the Ogooué in Gabon never had court art. Here, art is always ritual: objects are intended for rites practiced within a society of the "family anarchy" type, where clan and lineage predominate over any other organizational firm. The religious objects of the Ogooué Valley, which we classify today as works of art, had a function serving the individual and the community: to communicate with the spirit world to bring about healing, trigger maternity, emerge victorious from a battle, cause rain... They allowed a link with the invisible world of divinities and spirits. Contrary to the interpretation and misinterpretation of our first missionaries, these objects were not venerated for themselves, but because of the relationship they allowed to establish with the spirits and manes of the ancestors. To understand the art of the Ogooué, one must know the world in which the souls of those who are at its origin were formed. The beliefs that underlie this religious art are invisible to the superficial observer and, yet, they are still part of the mentality of individuals today. This is why the texts and captions of this work strive to provide a contextual identity to the objects before letting the photographs speak (unpublished photos of objects mainly from private collections, as well as unpublished photos from the archives of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit, from the beginning of the 20th century) which, by more or less violent suggestion of the plastic, invite us to perceive the emotion, the energy, the beauty that emanate from it. Thus, the ambition of this book is to present the art of the Ogooné basin in the cultural framework that gives it its full meaning.
Unlike some regions of Africa that saw the establishment of large kingdoms, the Ogooué in Gabon never had court art. Here, art is always ritual: objects are intended for rites practiced within a society of the "family anarchy" type, where clan and lineage predominate over any other organizational firm. The religious objects of the Ogooué Valley, which we classify today as works of art, had a function serving the individual and the community: to communicate with the spirit world to bring about healing, trigger maternity, emerge victorious from a battle, cause rain... They allowed a link with the invisible world of divinities and spirits. Contrary to the interpretation and misinterpretation of our first missionaries, these objects were not venerated for themselves, but because of the relationship they allowed to establish with the spirits and manes of the ancestors. To understand the art of the Ogooué, one must know the world in which the souls of those who are at its origin were formed. The beliefs that underlie this religious art are invisible to the superficial observer and, yet, they are still part of the mentality of individuals today. This is why the texts and captions of this work strive to provide a contextual identity to the objects before letting the photographs speak (unpublished photos of objects mainly from private collections, as well as unpublished photos from the archives of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit, from the beginning of the 20th century) which, by more or less violent suggestion of the plastic, invite us to perceive the emotion, the energy, the beauty that emanate from it. Thus, the ambition of this book is to present the art of the Ogooné basin in the cultural framework that gives it its full meaning.