A special summer exhibition at MUZA
Renowned international artists create works inspired by rituals and traditions from diverse cultures, alongside rare ethnographic and archaeological artworks.
A multidisciplinary journey through different periods and cultures – from 3,000-year-old archaeological ritual objects to a contemporary installation featuring an incandescent net with hovering sculptural elements, from a totem carved on the wing of a French aircraft to rare ancestral statues from Africa. Together, they create a contemporary ritual experience.
At the heart of the exhibition is the monumental installation Paxpa – There Is a Forest Encantada Inside of Us, a contemporary work rooted in an authentic tradition from the Amazon, in which the shaman charges the tribe’s ritual house with powers, and shares the cosmic and practical knowledge of his ancestors with the community. The artwork is a living, sacred space, expressing the vision and dream of the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto and the artists of the Amazon – the artists of plants and the pajés (shamans) of the Huni Kuin people – to create together a place of encounter and transformation, a site of healing even far away from the land of their ancestors.
Additional participating artists:
El Anatsui, Dana Claxton, Jimmie Durham, Jeffrey Gibson, Martine Gutierrez, Victoria Hanna, Camille Henrot, Tomoko Kawao, Ana Mendieta, Ernesto Neto, Betsabeé Romero, Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu
Al Hadje Manique Bangoura, Amadi Famori Camara, Barbadi Fote Camar, anonymous Bassa artist, anonymous Mende artist – courtesy of Dina & Michael Weiss Collection of African Art
Anonymous artists-priests from Philistine temples
Bringing the Magic Back to Art
Exhibition Curator and Chief Curator-at-Large of MUZA: Dr. Debby Hershman