[LIVE ONLINE ONLY] Men's Irons | African coins, weapons, recipes and cult irons

[LIVE ONLINE ONLY] Men's Irons | African coins, weapons, recipes and cult irons

Friday 08 May 2020 14:30
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Men's irons | African coins, weapons, recades and cult irons

Alin Avila and Fumihiko Harada collection
and to various amateurs

If masterpieces make one dream of means that one does not have, one cannot wait until one's pockets are full to marvel. So we wanted to see Africa on the iron side.

The culture of iron goes back through Nubia to the time of ancient Egypt, knowledge linked to transhumance, from the sources of the Nile to beyond Lake Victoria, it then invades the central cradle of the continent. The soul of Africa is metallurgical, its heart is in tune with that of the blacksmiths with their special status. He holds the power of transmission, man of the first forces - the ore that comes from the earth and the fire that the gods offer - as for his knowledge, he gets lost in the chain of his ancestors.

What the man of fire does allows him to feed himself as he can carry death. And who can doubt that these objects are not animated so much as they seem to have the strength to awaken the spirits.

Are they weapons, tools, jewels, insignia of parades? All of the above. But as long as their uses are difficult to understand, grasping their beauty is not the result of a misunderstanding.

Majestic signs, they seem brothers of some reflections of contemporary artists, and it is certainly because the blacksmith and the artist share the same quest for the essential.
Irons with strange or fatal shapes that fascinate, they remain unclassifiable.
This symbolic aestheticization of value conferring them even more mystery, finally here is "Beautiful money" could one say.

This sale is organized as an echo to the splendid exhibition held at the Musée du Quai Branly "Striking Iron - The Art of African Blacksmiths" from November 19, 2019 to March 29, 2020.
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