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Lot 54

FON OBJECT, REPUBLIC OF BENIN

17 December 2024, 16:00 CET
Brussels, Chaussée de Charleroi

Sold for €640 inc. premium

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FON OBJECT, REPUBLIC OF BENIN

bocio
monkey skulls, beaks, rope, calabash, cowries, plants, clay, sacrificial patina
Height 25 cm

Provenance
Anne & Jacques Kerchache, Paris

Literature
Kerchache, J. et al., Vaudou, Paris, 2011, p.111, and p.209, fig.13

Exhibited
Paris, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Vaudou, Paris, 5 April - 25 September 2011

Footnotes

Gabin Djimassé, writes of this object: "This work is composed of the following elements: two monkey skulls, a calao beak, a calabash (the plant), cowry shells strung on a cord, and sacrificial elements.
This type of sculpture is called kpe. To use it, one confides in the object and asks that the power contained in the elements that make it up be transferred to the user through the sacred words. In this case, the requests can be unlimited, multiple and multiform.
Here are a few incantations in Fongbe: Gbègban man non min vo ta ("Not everyone bears the weight of the universe"), Agbogbolinsu hwi wè sè nan ("Calao, it is to you alone that God has given the opportunity to bear the weight of the kingdom of Dahomey"), Adaklan vésu non xiya kpin bonu dji non dja a ("When the old monkey exposes the light side of the sacred stone the rain does not fall")". (Kerchache, J. et al., Vaudou, Paris, 2011, p.207-208)

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