MUSEUM news 42 GIANT MASKS OF THE CONGO Brussels—Masques géants du Congo: patrimoine ethnographique des jésuites de Belgique (Giant Masks from the Congo: A Belgian Jesuit Ethnographic Heritage) is the result of a collaboration between the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale at Tervuren (MRAC), the Belgian Society of Jesuits, the King Baudouin Foundation, and the BELvue Museum in Brussels. The latter will host the show, which will be on view from May 15–September 2, 2015. Curated by Julien Volper of the MRAC, the exhibition examines the collections and ethnographic research of the Jesuits in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the relationship between that religious order and the Tervuren Museum. Most of the pieces have never before been published and come from the MRAC, which holds the most important collection of these masks in the world, as well as from the former Louvain-Heverlee missionary museum, whose collection is now managed by the MRAC. Seventy mukanda masks used in the initiation rituals of the Yaka, Suku, and other neighboring peoples are the exhibition’s centerpiece. The show will be a rare opportunity to admire this spectacular group of these masks, whose vernacular names are kakungu and kazeba, and whose impressive dimensions inspired the exhibition’s title. A catalog produced in three editions (English, French, and Dutch) will document this historic, must-see event. MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE Zurich—The universe has fascinated and preoccupied man since time immemorial. The reasons for its existence, the movements of its heavenly bodies, and our place within it have been endlessly speculated upon, and innumerable cosmogonies developed by brilliant civilizations have been built around attempts to answer these simple and primordial questions. Some are based on myths rich in symbolism and others on rigorous scientific observations, but all have given rise to coherent belief systems that give structure to human activity. Le Cosmos—Mystère de l’humanité (The Cosmos: An Enduring Mystery), a remarkable show on view at the Rietberg Museum in Zurich until May 31, 2015, offers an opportunity to experience these diverse conceptions through the presentation of 180 artworks from seventeen civilizations ranging from Mesoamerica, North America, China, and India to Africa, Mesopotamia, and Polynesia. These reveal surprising convergences between the varied and often seemingly disparate ancient accounts of the origins of the world. The presentation further compares these ancient mythologies with the findings of contemporary astronomy, and the show’s curators demonstrate that there is a great deal of pertinence and scientific accuracy in the interpretations that are thousands of years old, a reminder that the power of great myths relies as much on their symbolic aspects as on their capacity to describe and interpret observable experience. Right: Ceremonial head crest. Tlingit, Northwest Coast. Before 1880. Wood, pigment, leather. Übersee Museum, Bremen, C 27. © Übersee Museum, Bremen. Photo: Matthias Haase. Left: Field photo of a Suku mask, kakuungu. MRAC photographic archives, EP.0.0.14597. © MRAC, Tervuren. Upper left: Portrait of Jesuit brother J. Gillet in the botanical garden of Kisantu, 1925. MRAC photographic archives, AP.0.0.28717. © MRAC, Tervuren. Photo: L. Habran. Above: Mask, hemba. Mbala, DR Congo. Wood, pigment. H: 35 cm. MRAC, Tervuren, Jesuit collection, SJ.330. © MRAC, Tervuren. Photo: J. Van de Vyver. Left: Mask, kakuungu. Yaka, DR Congo. Wood, pigment. H: 100 cm. MRAC, Tervuren, Jesuit collection, SJ.112. © MRAC, Tervuren. Photo: J.-M. Vandyck. Right: Decorated barkcloth, hiapo. Pacific islands, probably Niue. 19th century. Barkcloth, pigment. Völkerkundemuseum, University of Zurich, 2347. © Kathrin Leuenberger.
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