Mask - Wood - kidumu - Teke - Congo - 34 cm

FACIAL MASK KIDUMU - TEKE / TSAYI - DRC ZAIRE In the 19th century, the Tsayi, Teke group, were an important people living between the Louessé river and Haut Ogooué. From that time on, they made wooden masks of a very particular shape: it is a polychrome disc displaying symmetries in relation to vertical and horizontal axes. Thin slits are made at eye level as well as holes around the edge of the disc to pass fibers or feathers through. The dancer Kidumu plays on the symmetries of the mask by twirling, cartwheeling and perhaps delivers different readings of the patterns that decorate it.