Ancestors, goddesses and heroes : sculptures from Asia, Africa and Europe / authors, Bernadette Bröskamp [and ten others] ; translation from German into English, Bronwen Saunders.

Berlin : Deutscher Kunstverlag, [2023]

©2023

96 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), facsimile ; 27 cm

Published in connection with the exhibition at the Humboldt Forum Berlin, 2022-2023.

"Protecting, healing, or punishing--people of various eras and origins have attributed such powers to the sculptures that are being presented together here for the first time: be it the sculpture of the Mangaaka from what is today the Republic of Congo, the protective goddess Mahamayuri from China, or the Maria on the globe from Southern Germany. Forty-five objects created between the fourth and the nineteenth century from two museums in Berlin provide a vivid testimony to the ever-present need for protection and orientation when dealing with individual or social crises. They represent the existence of an invisible world of gods, spirits, or ancestors, and create a connection between this world and a "different reality." As a result of how they are presented in museums, their context of use is, however, often lost--a situation that is reflected on by the authors of this book."

English

May 16, 2023

Includes bibliographical references.

Exhibition catalogs.