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Sacrificial patina

African Art mask and figure

Two African Pieces on the Table

This morning, before opening the shop, I placed these two next to each other. Not because they belong to the same tradition. They clearly do not. But sometimes objects begin to speak differently when they share the same space for a while. One is a mask from Zambia, in the Mbunda style. The other, a small Lobi figure from Burkina… Read More »Two African Pieces on the Table

Fon Boccio african art

A Power Vodun Figure from the Dahomean Frontier

At the old border between Benin and Togo, the landscape changes little, but belief changes everything. The line we know today—704 kilometers of straight segments, river bends and coastal lagoons—was not drawn by the Fon priests who worked with spirits. It was the product of 19th-century European treaties between France and Germany, and a precise delimitation in 1912. The boundary… Read More »A Power Vodun Figure from the Dahomean Frontier