RIGHT: Babalao (father) and Mathias (son) Gamadokpa. Abomey, 2010. © Agnès Pataux. 52 ABOVE: Shaman’s hairpin with raven head. Northwest Coast. Early 20th century. Whalebone, shell. Collection of the Creative Museum. © Creative Museum. LEFT: Ridgepost with ancestor figure surmounted by a bird. Sawos, Papua New Guinea. Wood, vegetable material, cowries. Private collection. © Musée AAA, Vichy. MUSEUM news VOODOO Lyon—Voodoo never cea ses to fascinate peo ple. It is undoub tedl y th e best-known African cult, perhaps because it is so widely diffused including through New World locations Haiti, Cuba, and Brazil, where it has thrived in the wake of the Fon and Yoruba diaspora. It maintains an astonishing vitality within the various communities that have adopted Theologically, it and practice it assiduously. Voodoo is the organizing force of an invis ible w orld populated by p owerful spirits. It is visually characterized by power objects whose striking aesthetic qualities in part account for its renow n in the West. These objects are varied but notably include sacrificial bedecked statues coated with blood and with mirrors, locks, shells, metal rods, and divination objects. With its presentation of Vodou, du visible à l’invisible (Voodoo: From the Visible to the Invisible), on view until J uly 31, 2014, the Mus ée Africain de Lyon explores Voodoo collection beliefs and rituals through works from th e of Claude Rouyer, an expert in Benin material who has collected fetishes and magical objects for more than twenty years. Photographs by Agnès Pataux complement t he objects, e mp hasizing the l iving an d vit al as pect s of contemporary Voodoo practices. FEATHERS Vichy—–Until October 31, 2014, feathers are the focus at t he Musée des Arts d’Afriqu e in Vichy. The exhibition Plumes museum (Feathers) includes works both owned by the and drawn from private collections, and its unique approac h is a kind o f mix of a rt histo ry and ethno-ornithology. Starting with the premise that man has always been fascinated with birds, no doubt rooted in the fact that he associates flight with freedom and the ability to escape th e hu man condition (the myth of Ica rus being one example), the exhibition examines the place of the bird in fiv e of the world’s regions: India, China, Côte d’Ivoire, New Guinea, and the United States. In each of these areas, artistic creations allude to particular species of birds, such as the peacock, the mar tin, the t oucan, the cassowary, and the eagle, to name but a few. The installation includes objects that have feathers as elements of their construction as well as representations in which the bird is the central subject of the work. What it is that these reveal exhibition about people is the theme around which this is centered. ABOVE: Poster for the exhibition Plumes at the Musée des Arts d’Afrique et d’Asie in Vichy.
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