Ankara’s CerModern hosts ‘magical’ African masks

Ankara’s CerModern hosts ‘magical’ African masks

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Journalist and writer Hıfzı Topuz is displaying his collection of African masks and sculptures at an exhibition in Ankara’s CerModern. Click through for the story in photos...
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The collection, which he gathered during his travels to Africa over 25 years, can be seen at CerModern in the exhibition titled “Africa Magic.”
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The exhibition includes nearly 500 original masks used by ethnic communities in Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Congo in ceremonies.
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The exhibition is mostly made up of wood carving masks as well as ones with metal details and beads.
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Topuz said that he collected the artifacts from auctions and in France and his travels to Africa.

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He said that he went to Paris for a master’s degree in 1957 and saw the first examples of African art in the house of the poet Nazım Hikmet’s wife Münevver Hanım.
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“The house was full of African masks and sculptures, like in museums. I told myself that if I go to Africa, I will collect them, too.”
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Topuz said he was sent to Dakar to give journalism seminars in the early 1960s when he started to work at UNESCO. “I returned from Dakar with four sculptures,” he added.
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“I traveled to the black African countries 25 times. During my 25 years at UNESCO, I went to Africa several times a year. I stayed in Congo for a year."
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"There are some shops but they sell tourist things, it wasn’t easy to find the real parts. My friends started to help me, ‘Take this, take that, this is precious’ they said. As I became acquainted with African art, I began to understand.”
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“Africans use them only at the ceremonies. They don’t keep them in the house or hang on their walls."

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"According to the belief of animism, they think that the mask or statue becomes sacred when the great spirits are guests."
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The exhibition will run through June 23 at CerModern main gallery. (Photos: Anadolu Agency)
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