An emblematic bronze mask, cast by Samson Ogiamien in Benin City with the royal casters' guild Igun Eronmwon — at once a traditional and a contemporary work, and the ritual centre of the touring performance Iyagbon's Mirror.
Bronze, 74 × 50 cm, 2020. Created and photographed by Samson Ogiamien.
An emblematic bronze mask, created in early 2020 by Samson Ogiamien in Benin City, Nigeria, together with the royal casters' guild Igun Eronmwon.
It is both a traditional and a contemporary work of art, representing a new generation of African art that travels to Europe to reunite with the art of its ancestors in the diaspora. It is the centre of the multidisciplinary performance Iyagbon's Mirror, where Cie Onyrikon's performers interact with the mask on stage; with each adaptation of the piece, a new, transient body is built for the mask on site.
… I ask for Uhun Ila, bronze head of Benin. The moon says it is in Vienna … — Samson Ogiamien
Bronze, 74 × 50 cm. Cast using the lost-wax (ceramic-shell) process in the Nigerian tradition, in Benin City, with Igun Eronmwon — the hereditary guild of royal bronze casters to the Oba of Benin.
Related project
Yaruya