Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou (Benin 1965-)
Egoungoun - Adé I

giclée on Epson Natural Hot Press Paper, Diasec

Artwork date: 2017
Edition: number 2 from an edition of 6
Exhibited: SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, 'Peer, A Group Exhibition', 28 October to 18 November 2017.

(1)

148 x 109.5 x 4 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou’s series Egungun Masquerades, captures representations of the ancestral figures of the Yoruba community. These figures are often seen during ceremonial occasions such as funerals and annual celebrations, where they engage in vibrant traditional processions, performances, and displays. Accompanied by elaborate drumming and the singing and chanting of community members, the masqueraders are completely covered by elaborate costumes made of richly brocaded, appliquéd cloth panels and highly symbolic tapestry-like fabrics, often including golden thread, beads and palm fronds. Egungun are revered as celestial entities, representing the ancestral spirits descended to earth to restore harmony, receive reverence, and bestow blessings.[1] The participants embodying these ancestors undergo a twofold transformation during Egungun rituals. Firstly, their identities and physical forms are obscured by the elaborate, weighty costumes. Secondly, on a spiritual level, they relinquish their individual selves, becoming vessels for the ancestral spirits.

Agbodjélou’s flamboyant photographs highlight the intricate significance of the Egungun, portraying their unique characteristics and behaviours, while highlighting their mysterious and powerful presence as embodiments of spiritual essence. Due to the fact that “cloth survives its owner and not the reverse, the Yoruba believe that, when humans return as ancestors, they will once again be covered completely, with cloth even as the Egungun, ancestral masquerade, is also covered with cloth. In Yoruba thought, the deathlessness of cloth is comparable only to Olodumare, the supreme and self-existent being and creator-in-chief. The socioreligious and aesthetic significance of cloth in Yoruba belief, far outweighs its destructibility as a material object”.[2]

“It is the aso [cloth] we should greet before greeting the wearer”.[3]

Ruth Simbao’s article leaves viewers with an intriguing question: “If, as the Yoruba saying suggests, the aso (the cloth or the clothes) should be greeted before the wearer due to the extreme importance of cloth in Yoruba culture, then who or what performs the role of the ‘sitter’ in Agbodjélou’s contemporary Egungun portraits: the figures or the cloth itself?”. [4]

^{[1] Egungun Masquerade Dance Costume, [O]. Available: https://africa.si.edu/exhibits/resonance/44.html (Accessed 24 May 2024).}

^{[2] Rowland Abiodun in his discussion of the importance of cloth (aso) to Yoruba culture. See the Africa volume of the, edited by Joanne B. Eicher and Doran H. Ross, Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2010, p. 301.}

^{[3] Ibid., p. 298.}

^{[4] Ruth Simbao. (2015) ‘Portraits of ‘The Deathlessness of Cloth’: Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou’s Egungun Masquerades series, [O]. Available: https://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/ruthsimbao/documents/writingreviewsthinkpieces/Portraits_of_the_deathlessness_of_cloth.pdf (Accessed 24 May 2024).}

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

• Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist.

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Fondation Gandur pour l'art, Geneva; Sina Jina Collection, London and the Scheryn Collection, Cape Town.