Guro/Yaure mask

Guro/Yaure mask, Ivory Coast, framed with a double row zigzag border as decorative rim on the forehead and on the edge of the mask with openwork zigzag ornament, crowned by a male seated figure touching the forehead of the mask with his beak, very straight nose, on the temples and on the root of the nose decorative scars; age patina with minimal encrustations.The Yaure are considered a subgroup of the Baule in Côte d'Ivoire. However, their masks can usually be distinguished from those of the Baule because they have a typical zig-zag line running around the face and carved out of the same piece. This is characteristic of Yaure masks.

Yaure masks are linked to men's associations organizing funerals to honor the spiritual power of the deceased. The masks come out for a single occasion, death, this disturbance of order that needs to be restored. Alain-Michel Boyer compares them to "dynamic forms located at the point of articulation of life and death" («formes dynamiques situées au point d’articulation de la vie et de la mort»). The Lomana mask, accompanied by incantations, dances by grazing the body of the deceased, ritualistically transforming him or her into an ancestor who is supposed to help and protect his or her descendants. Masks are considered among the Yaure people to be very powerful and dangerous objects. Women are not allowed to see the masks and it is impossible for men to approach them outside the ritual context; moreover, they are subject to numerous prohibitions, sexual, choreographic and aesthetic.

Lit.: Les Yohouré de Côte d’Ivoire. Faire danser les dieux, Lausanne, Ides et Calendes, 2016. Traduction américaine de Jane Todd, The Yaure of Côte d’Ivoire, Make the Gods Danse, Geneva-Cape Town, Cultural Foundation Musée Barbier-Mueller, 2016). Arts de la Côte d’Ivoire. Autour des Yohouré, Genève, Musée Barbier-Mueller, 2016.

Height: 55 cm

Weight: 1,7 kg (incl. stand)