Vodou, a way of life

Vodou, a way of life
MEG
Edited by Jacques Hainard and Philippe Mathez, photos by Johnathan
Watts
Vodou - the storehouse of the slave mind, to this day the vibrant
engine of resistance - is much more than a way of looking at the
world. It is omnipresent in Haiti, its influence on every aspect of life
giving meaning to the mundane. Marianne Lehmann, a Swiss who
arrived in Port-au-Prince in 1957, has been collecting vodou objects
for over 30 years. The courtyard of her house, its rooms and garden
are filled to bursting with more than 3,000 items of a little-known yet
surprisingly spirited material culture. Life-size figures from secret
societies stand next to representations of spirits, flags of vodou
nations, dreamlike figurines, immense mirrors, paquets congo, altars
piled high with empty bottles, coffee cups, archaeological stones
from the Taino and Arawak cultures. We are brought up short by the
vast array of odds and ends used in service to the spirits, rendered
speechless by the infinite creativity of Haitian artists. Saved from
dispersal by Lehmann's care, the objects await suitable conditions of
display to the Haitian public under the auspices of the Fondation
pour la préservation, la valorisation et la production d'oeuvres
culturelles haïtiennes (FPVPOCH).
The catalogue presents more than 300 pieces from Lehmann's
collection on display for the first time ever, anywhere in the world, at
the MEG exhibition, "Vodou, a way of life". The pictures are by
Johnathan Watts, who kept to the exhibition's narrative thread. They
play on variations, details, materials, accessories and group effects,
kindling complex and sometimes conflicting feelings. Two interviews,
one with Marianne Lehmann herself, the other with the vodou priest,
the houngan Max Beauvoir, shed light on the context in which the
objects were collected, while an article by Haitian anthropologist
Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique (FPVPOCH) explains vodou's
underlying significance : the memory of the slave crossing to the
Americas and the struggle for freedom and independence - a
legitimate source of pride, but also a battle that remains to be won.
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39.00 CHF
26.00 EUR
CATEGORIE
Ethnographie > Catalogues de
musée
COLLECTION
MEG
Parution
2008
Nombre de page
176 pages
Reliure
broché
Dimension
23x28 cm
Contenu
illustrations couleur
ISBN
9782884741408