Containers

Dictionaries define this term as anything or place intended to receive any type of object of different origin. In this sense are receptacles a cup of offerings, an oil lamp, a divinatory tray, a container for libations, a pot of ointments or any other container of those used in African daily life or in its magical-religious manifestations. This would also be the definition of container. But in Africa the receptacle acquires a different dimension, it is the support of the energies of the hereafter, the bond of union between this world and the world of spirits and hidden forces. The mask is a receptacle in which a deity, a spirit, an ancestor, a genius of nature or a totemic or mythological animal is embodied. And the statue, for example, is the receptacle in which a ancestor is present. Almost all objects used in divinatory practices, magical rites or religious ceremonies may have the value of receptacles by receiving spiritual or supernatural forces in them. A tree, as a living being, is also a receptacle that has received forces emanating from divinity. Animism is not pantheistic, those forces, those vital principles that dwell on the tree are not divinity, they are only a manifestation of divinity. Indeed, any exhibition of so-called African art could be entitled “African Receptacles” as it would encompass the dual material and spiritual dimension of those objects. In the “Receptacles” section of this Exhibition we have chosen to include these objects exclusively from a material point of view.