240205 - Autour des Songe - Under the influence of the Songye.

Autour des Songe - Under the influence of the Songye.
255 pages - Soft cover - 24 x 17 cm - Language : English & French
The history of the countless masks that have left Africa for Europe and the United States.
By some strange magic, the result of artistic talent, these masks are not reduced to mere "ethnographic trophies" hung on the cold walls of museums or private homes; whether studied by researchers or confronted by museum visitors, they keep intact and display proudly that famous, indefinable aura the "layman" experiences in their presence.
Very little is known about the astonishing round striated masks produced by the eastern Luba, and it is easier to highlight their strange beauty and their European pedigrees than to expand on the few established facts. They are known arbitrarily as "kifwebe", after the society of the same name found among the Luba and Songye, although nothing confirms their association with this iconographically charged label.
Each mask in its own way is a witness to, as well as the result of, cultural and artistic exchange between the various Katango and Kasaï cultures. The history of these round masks and crested masks carry us to various cultures, various beliefs.