Lobi - Lot 38

Lobi Female Bateba statue Burkina Faso Wood with grayish patina H. 75 cm Provenance : Galerie 62 (René et Maud Garcia) Paris, 1970-1980 Stéphane Kurc Collection, Paris The Lobi live in West Africa, mainly in southwest Burkina Faso, but also in northwest Ghana and northeast Côte d'Ivoire. Their society, based on a non-centralized organization, fostered the development of numerous "big houses" or thilduu, family households altars dedicated to the thila, bush spirits linked to deified ancestors. Lobi art is thus inseparable from a complex religious and cosmological system, in which the thila play the role of intermediaries between men and the supreme god, who is inaccessible directly. The figures known as bateba - whether male or female - are emanations of these spirits. spirits. Far from being mere representations, they are perceived as active entities, to be maintained in a state of favor through rituals, offerings and attentive care. As in African art, form is inseparable from ritual function. This relationship is exacerbated here: the imposing size of this fi gure (75 cm), its hieratic posture and its striking pre- the power of the spirit represented. The monumentality of the work is not simply a matter of aesthetics, but reflects the thil's central role in domestic and communal rituals. The monumentality of this work reinforces its visual and spiritual presence, and bears witness to a desire the invisible power of the supernatural world. The wood chosen, its density and the greyish patina patina - probably the result of prolonged ritual use (exposure to smoke, handling, libations) - suggest the intervention of a craftsman. - suggest the work of an experienced sculptor, perhaps the holder of some initiatory rank. According to Lobi traditions, the link between the sculptor and the thil is essential: it is the spirit itself that chooses its medium, revealing a relationship of spiritual co-optation. With its formal balance - between full volumes and hieratic tension - this female statue powerfully embodies expressive sobriety, marked verticality and restrained monumentality. monumentality. It is part of an artistic tradition in which ritual efficiency takes precedence over ornamentation, while bearing the hallmark of a workshop that perfectly masters local plastic codes. A very similar piece, probably from the same workshop, or even male counterpart to our fi gure, appears on the cover of the book cover of the book Les bois qui murmurent / Whispering Woods, published published in 2016. This formal proximity reinforces the hypothesis of a ritual couple intended to act complementarily as part of a domestic or clan cult. domestic or clan cult.