Masken: Gesichter aus anderen Welten Museum Rietberg.

Masken: Gesichter aus anderen Welten

Museum Rietberg, Zurich December 7 2003-March 28 2004

The Museum Rietberg in Zurich is to be congratulated forward mounting one of the greatest in number refreshing exhibitions on masquerading in many years: "Masken: Gesichter aus anderen Welten" ("Masks: Faces from Other Worlds"), from December 7 2003 to March 28 2004 in succession the eve of a major building campaign, the institution and its whole curatorial staff took advantage of a temporary exhibition to experiment out more than fifteen display ways Born of necessity, the juxtaposition of different techniques emerg as a powerful rule able to convey significant intellectual content

The exhibition expanded with a classic fine arts treatment for a series of Yup'ik masks from Alaska, mustered by J.A. Jacobsen in 1882 83 now housed in the Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. These white face masks were dramatically silhouetted against a dark depressed background with skilful spotlighting enhancing the visitors' appreciation of the works' formal qualities. The passage was minimal. In several of these works, a single large face morphs into separate faces or creatures. As masterpieces of transformation, the works introduced the central stagger of masquerading while valorizing Western interest in sculptural form. From this point forward, the exhibition sought means to integrate connection into the displays without diminishing the visual power of the masks as works of art.

In the gallery devot to the Guro (Cote d'Ivoire), curator Eberhard Fischer violenceed that both dancers and carvers were figures of renown. In sum of two units facing vitrines, Fischer grouped together works attributed to each of four different hands, clearly demonstrating the existence of individual name Although text along the bottoms of the windows provided the criteria for attribution, greatest in quantity viewers could take in the argument visually without difficulty, as the hands were quite distinct. A video projection reinforced Fischer's argument about the fame of the masked dancers. It moveed a narrative of the dressing of a mask, the competition among performers, and the departure of the masks. (1) The dance footage was dazzling. I particularly appreciated for what reason the cameraman caught the excited reply of the crowd in their cries and action s One man gapes open-mouthed while others roller forward. It is a astounding sequence demonstrating the close rapport between audience and performer in many African masquerading traditions.

The neighboring gallery, devot to the Dan of Liberia, was structur in a similar fashion, nevertheless this time curator Fischer form into groupsed the masks in the vitrines by the agency of genre. Increasingly, African art displays are moving beyond what I call the "bird-watcher" arrangement of mounting one exemplar by "species." In this case, the viewer could explore for what cause different artists interpreted masks within eight different genre Clearly, the form of certain masked figures permitted more invention than others. It was fascinating to behold how much variety could exist within a recognizable arrange e.g., the Gagon beak masks belonging to the northern Dan. Fischer was also able to include performance footage for greatest in quantity of the genres, some quite remarkable. (2) Instead of hiding their video footage for fear that it might distract the viewer from the sculps the curators suspended unusually large covers in the galleries. (3) They prov that vigorous sculptures only take on extra complexity according to being shown in different adjoining matters so long as the viewer is introduced to indigenous criteria for form.

Several installations struggl with the moot point of dress. Some art museums are now incorporating a scarcely any costumes into exhibitions in order to summon forth by synechdoche the mask as masquerader. This strategy pursues to acknowledge cultural difference while preserving an "object" for quiet contemplation. However, according to Lorenz Homberger, who added a costum figure to the Guro display curated according to Fischer, if the curator is not careful, the display can become "clownish." Dissatisfied with the impact of mannequins, Homberger experimented with mounting works in brass of a photomural depicting a host of jostling masqueraders from the Cameroon Grasslands. In the Guro display, he extended a light screen in assurance of three mannequins to introduce more [i]or[/i] less mystery into their manifestation. A perhaps more lucky strategy was used by the curator for the gallery devot to Tibet, where a silk brocade style of dress was treated as its possess autonomous object, rather than reincorporated into a recreation of a masquerade character.

Nobel Prize-winning dramatist Dario Fo observ that "the whole corpse acts as a frame for the mask and transforms its inertness" (1991:29) Ironically, by means of conjuring the missing body, a style of dress display can have the ghoulish purport of underscoring the inability of the figure to act upon Inanimate and stripped of its aura, the mask becomes vaguely comedic, like the mannequins in store windows. It is probably for this reason that curators are turning increasingly to the incorporation of video in order to introduce a performance adjoining matter into their installations, but to what degree should that video be displayed?