Kamayura mask, Xingu, Brazil - Lot 109

Lot n° 109
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Estimation :
1200 - 1800 EUR
Kamayura mask, Xingu, Brazil - Lot 109
Kamayura mask, Xingu, Brazil Mid-20th century Balsa, plant fibers, pigments (genipapo) H. 31 cm - H. 75 cm (with fibers) Bibliography : Wastiau Boris, Amazonie. Le Chamane et la pensée de la forêt, cat.exp. (Genève, Musée d'ethnographie de Genève, May 20, 2016-January 8, 2017), Genève, Somogy éditions d'art, 2016. "To penetrate the "soul" of each species, one must be part of it or a hybrid, gifted with extraordinary qualities, as shamans are". This conception of animism, shared by the Amerindian peoples of the upper Rio Xingu, and in particular the Kamayura, reflects the idea of a sensory clairvoyance enabling access to the invisible world of forest spirits, in order to restore order in the community or heal illnesses. The shamanic trance offers a higher state of consciousness and a capacity for physical transfiguration, enabling the shaman "to come and go in concomitant parallel worlds, aerial, celestial, terrestrial, subaquatic and subterranean". It seems clear that this mask, fashioned from lightweight white wood, was worn by a Kamayura shaman as part of a ceremony. The formal abstraction of the volumes reflects the shamans' concern for physical ambivalence, aimed at reaching invisible worlds by taking on different appearances. Beneath the large visored forehead, from which emerges a small geometric nose in high relief, are the piercing eyes, witnesses to the omniscient gaze of the transfigured being. The mask affixed to the head concealed the shaman, while providing visibility through the hanging fibers. Covering almost the entire surface of the mask, repeated painted diamond patterns create a kinetic illusion, offering the shifting, moving vision of fish swimming in water. Reinforcing the presence of the supernatural entity, these patterns were also reproduced on the body, producing a strong visual impact. This ceremony, held during the dry season on the shores of lakes and rivers, highlighted the widespread fishing practice of poisoning the water with a poisonous sugarcane plant to suffocate and scoop up the fish. Through the secret language of its forms and symbols, this enigmatic mask is the magical medium between the human world and the immaterial world, the power of which only the shaman held.
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