guere wobe mask

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Information request of availability Gere Wobe Mask

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We - Guere Ngere Wobe mask.
Western Ivory Coast.

This mask is published in the German book "Africa Screams", by Peter Hammer published in 2004

Large 26cm - Height 40cm without the stand
Wood-red paint, cowries-red tissue-fibers-red beads- panther teeth and wood teeth- old European bells.

price: not available

Information request of availability Gere Wobe Mask

The Gere ad the Wobe are in fact two different tribes, but they share most of there customs and beliefs. This mask is a Gere mask.

This Mask, stand for the "men who easily forgive".

LITTLE STORY ABOUT THIS GERE MASK

During my last show in Paris, this mask was the one who captured the most attention during my last show in Paris by my visitors. Some people just entered the gallery at the rue de Seine to get a closer look at this mask.

I wondered why this mask attracted them so much, and asked them.

I discovered it was due to the frightning expression, making it look wild and also the fact that it includes European bells , this give it more power.

When asked my visitors told me they where attracted by this mask utterly grotesque and horrific aspect.

They found it a repugnant distortion of the "natural" human body . When asked about the meaning some suggested it could be a mind ruled by terror.

But this type of mask was in fact not made to frighten but to amuse and had more a "clown" function, during ceremonies and represented some intermediate death ancestors entities.

This did not mean the mask was less dangerous, since this type of masks was essentially used during funerals, and was also able to design a "guilty" person during trials.

Guere Wobe Masks

The Guere are ruled by large warrior confederations, the chief acting as much for civilian purposes as for military ones.Each family was ruled by a patriarch who gave them wisdom and wealth and helped participating in the various ceremonies and tribe traditions.

Dan Gere Wobe Kran & related books Bibliography:

Dan Ge Performance: Masks and Music in Contemporary Cote D'Ivoire (African Expressive Culture) ~ Daniel B. Reed.

Ge, formerly translated as 'mask' or 'masquerade', appears among the Dan people of Cote d'Ivoire as a dancing and musical embodiment of their social ideals and religious beliefs. In "Dan Ge Performance", Daniel B. Reed sets out to discover what resides at the core of Ge. He finds that Ge is defined as part of a religious system, a form of entertainment, an industry, a political tool, an instrument of justice, and a form of resistance and it can take on multiple roles simultaneously.He sees genu (pl.) dancing the latest dance steps, co-opting popular music, and acting in concert with Ivorian authorities to combat sorcery.

A Gere mask from Ladislas Segy book

Not only are the bounds of traditional performance stretched, but Ge performance becomes a strategy for helping the Dan to establish individual and community identity in a world that is becoming more religiously and ethnically diverse. Readers interested in all aspects of expressive culture in West Africa will find fascinating material in this rich and penetrating book. This book was the Winner of 2004 Amuary Talbot Prize for African Anthropology, awarded by the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Ladislas Segy . Masks of Black Africa (African Art Art of Illustration) ~ Ladislas Segy (see the image of the Guere Wobe mask in the book on your right)

L'art africain (L'Art et les grandes civilisations) ~ Jacques Kerchache

scholar research: Who Are the Kran/Guere and the Gio/Yacouba? Ethnic Identifications along the Liberia-Ivory Coast Border. Svend E. Holsoe and Joseph J. Lauer African Studies Association Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Apr., 1976), pp. 139-149 (article consists of 11 pages)