Benin Bronzes Wien
International Symposium on the subject organized by the Museum
May 9th-10th 2007 
BENIN
– KINGS AND RITUALS
Court Arts from Nigeria
May 9 – September 3, 2007
Museum
für Völkerkunde, Vienna
1010 Wien | Neue Burg
Tel. +43 1 525 24- 0 | Fax +43 1 525 24- 5199 | www.ethno-museum.ac.at
INTERNATIONAL
SYMPOSIUM
BENIN - KINGS AND RITUALS
Court Arts from Nigeria
May 9th/10th 2007
Information Tel. +43 1 525 24- 5052 oder 5053
infoATethno-museum.ac.at
Ivory and bronze sculptures from the West
African Kingdom of Benin, in present-day Nigeria, are among the continent’s
most important and valuable works of art. Included in the corpus are elaborate
bas-relief plaques, stately commemorative king’s heads and towering elephant
tusks embellished with detailed figurative scenes illustrating life at court and
the heroic deeds of kings and warriors. These artworks glorified the king, as
the political and spiritual head of his people, and honored his ancestors.
Court
Dwarfs
Bronze, 14/15th century
© Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum with MVK and ÖTM
The detailed workmanship and outstanding
aesthetic quality of Benin’s royal sculpture has been compared to the work of
the celebrated Renaissance artist, Cellini. Its wealth of iconographic detail
conveys the sumptuousness of the royal court and its historical importance as a
regional powerhouse in West Africa from the 16th through the 19th centuries.
In “Benin—Kings and Rituals, Court Arts
from Nigeria” over 300 carefully selected objects offer a broad survey of the
royal arts and culture of the Kingdom of Benin from its inception in the
fourteenth century to its overthrow by British forces in the late nineteenth
century; the exhibition further documents the kingdom’s reconstitution during
the colonial period and its continuity into the twenty-first century.
Importantly, the exhibition marks the first time that masterpieces from Benin -
dispersed in European and American collections since the late-nineteenth century
- are reunited and interpreted in light of modern scholarship. Many of these
superb works of art are also important ritual objects, valuable symbols of
status, or nuanced historical documents that illustrate court ceremonies,
versions of which survive to this day. The exhibition will interweave these and
other multifaceted themes to reconstruct and interpret the kingdom’s long,
rich history.
Plaque: Inside the royal palace
bronze
16/17 century
© Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
The exhibition is organized by the Museum für
Völkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology) in Vienna and includes over 60 works from its
celebrated Benin collection. In preparing the exhibition curators and museum
specialists from Vienna have worked closely with museum colleagues and scholars
from Europe, Nigeria, and the United States, and with authorities from the
Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments and the royal family and
officials of the Benin Kingdom. Close collaboration with the Ethnologisches
Museum (Ethnological Museum) in Berlin and the British Museum in London, where
the largest and most important Benin collections are housed, were also of
seminal importance.
Europeans have been aware of Benin since the sixteenth century, when close
economic ties developed between the kingdom and Portugal. From these earliest
times artists in Benin executed curios, including magnificent ivory salt
cellars, spoons, and horns, for sale to European sailors and merchants, but the
depth of their artistry was never fully revealed.
Head
of a Leopard, ivory
© Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum with MVK and ÖTM
In 1897 British forces occupied and burned the city of Benin and destroyed the
royal palace. Following these tragic events, hundreds of bronze and ivory
sculptures, along with royal regalia and other palace furnishings, were shipped
to London, where they aroused considerable attention from the European public.
From the fifteenth century on, commemorative heads of kings were the central
element of royal ancestral altars that also featured other freestanding bronze
sculptures. In the seventeenth century richly carved ivory tusks were added to
these ensembles and in the eighteenth century tableaux of bronze figures were
introduced. Unique bronze bas-relief plaques illustrating complex court
hierarchy, royal rituals, and historical events of the kingdom, were probably
produced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; according to a
seventeenth-century European visitor, they once adorned pillars within the royal
palace. When British soldiers occupied the palace they found them in a storage
room where it has been speculated they were preserved as a kind of archive.
Among the plaque’s imagery are depictions of annual ceremonies comprising
rituals to guarantee the survival and prosperity of the kingdom and its
inhabitants. The ceremonies feature courtiers and dignitaries from the court’s
complex hierarchy paying homage to their king attired in magnificent ceremonial
robes and bearing bronze, ivory or coral insignia. These traditions are still
very much alive in Benin today. While they have maintained their spiritual
importance, they have evolved into popular and colourful festivals that are
broadcast on Nigerian television for the enjoyment of a national audience.
The
many times reproduced by forgers Figure of a
young female bronze
benin statue
17/18 century
© Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna
May 9 – September 3, 2007
Musée du quai Branly, Paris
October 2, 2007 – January 6, 2008
Ethnologisches Museum,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
February 7 – May 25, 2008
Art Institute of Chicago
June 27 – September 21, 2008
More images
related Benin
creation
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
BENIN - KINGS AND RITUALS
Court Arts from Nigeria
May 9th/10th 2007
Information
Tel. +43 1 525 24- 5052 oder 5053
Conference language is English
The exhibition Benin — Kings and Rituals, Court Arts from Nigeria marks the
first time that
masterpieces from Benin dispersed in European and American collections since the
late nineteenth century are reunited. Over 300 carefully selected objects offer
a broad
survey of the royal arts and culture of the Kingdom of Benin from its inception
in the
fourteenth century to its overthrow by British forces in the late nineteenth
century. The
exhibition further documents the kingdom’s reconstitution during the colonial
period and its
continuity into the twenty-first century.
On the occasion of the opening of this important Benin-exhibition the Museum für
Völkerkunde Wien organizes an international symposium to highlight the latest
research
results on art and cultural history of the Benin kingdom from a broad
perspective.
For the symposium the most well-known experts from Nigeria, Europe and the
United
States are invited to present the latest results of historical, anthropological
and
iconographic research.
This offers the singular opportunity for the researchers with differing
disciplinary
backgrounds to exchange and discuss their research results in the context of a
scholarly
meeting open to the public. Members of the Benin royal family and
representatives of the
artists’ guilds in Benin will contribute with their important inside view.
Program
Mittwoch, 9. Mai 2007 / Wednesday May 9, 2007
Benin Art and its Turbulent History.
From 08:30 on Registration
09:45 Official Welcome and Opening Session
10:00 Barbara Plankensteiner, Curator, Museum für Völkerkunde
Wien
Benin Art. The Causes and Routes of its Dispersal Worldwide
10:30 Prince G.I. Akenzua, Benin City
The Loss of the Benin Artworks and their Original Function
11:00 Coffee Break
11:30 Joseph Eboreime, Director General, National
Commission
for Museums and Monuments of Nigeria
Benin Art in the Future Scheme of Nigerian Museums
12:00 Christian Feest, Director, Museum für Völkerkunde
Wien
Observations on the Restitution of Cultural Property in a Global Perspective
12:30 Lunch Break
The State of Research on Benin Art and History
History
14:00 Patrick Darling, Bournemouth University, UK
Re-Writing Benin’s History: The Conflicting Roles of Archaeologists,
Historians, Ethnographers and Traditional Politics over time
14:30 Adam Jones, Institut für Afrikanistik,
Universität Leipzig
European Sources for Benin and its Art in the 17th and 18th Centuries
15:00 Benson Osarhieme Osadolor, University of Benin,
Benin City
Benin History Studies. The State of the Discipline and the Flowering of
Local History
15:30 Stefan Eisenhofer, Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde
München
Local Histories in Benin and their Problematic
16:00 Coffee Break
Art
16:30 Kathy Curnow, Philadelphia, USA
Benin Art and its Position and Relations in a larger Regional Perspective
17:00 Barbara Blackmun, Las Mesa College San Diego,
California, USA
State of Research on the Interpretation of Benin Iconography
Donnerstag, 10. Mai 2007 / Thursday May 10, 2007
Continuation : The State of Research on Benin Art and History
Memory
08:30 Flora Edouwaye Kaplan, New York University
Photography in Benin. A Source of Memories
09:00 Adepeju Layiwola, Lagos University
New Forms of Commemoration and Remembrance:
Commemorative Textiles in Benin
09:30 Charles Gore, SOAS (School of Oriental and
African Studies) London
Memory-Making in Art, Ritual and Performance of Benin
10:00 Coffee Break
Collection Histories
10:30 Gisela Völger, Köln
Felix von Luschan and his Relevance for Contemporary Research on Benin
11:00 Silvia Dolz, Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden
History and Relevance of the Fairly Known Dresden Benin Collection
11:30 Kay Heymer, Essen
Benin Art and Modernism
Benin Art today and the Quest for Authenticity
12:00 Daniel Inneh, Benin City
Surviving Guilds in Benin. Their Function in Society and Relation to the
Royal Palace
12:30 Chief K. Osarhenhen Inneh, Benin City, Ine of
the Bronzecasters Guild
Prospects for the Bronzecasters Guild in Benin
13:00 Lunch Break
14:30 Joseph Nevadomsky, Fullerton University
California, USA
Contemporary Brass-Casting Production and Styles in Benin
15:00 Paula Ben-Amos Girshick, Indiana University,
USA
Benin Art in the Global Market: Circulating across the African Continent
15:30 Chika Okeke-Agulu, Philadelphia
The Burden of Tradition: Modern Edo Artists and the Legacy of “Benin”
Art
16:00 Coffee Break
16:30 Thomas Fillitz, Universität Wien
The Issue of Authenticity in Relation to African Art
17:00 Peter Junge, Ethnologisches Museum Berlin
The Chronology of Benin Art. Limitations of Stylistic and Scientific Methods
of Dating
17:30 Break
Benin as Trademark. The Production and Market of Fake Benin Bronzes
18:00 Roundtable Discussion with:
Barbara Blackmun, Alexander von Berswordt-Wallrabe, Joseph
Nevadomsky, Peter Junge, Peter Krejsa
Moderation/Chair: Barbara Plankensteiner
Information und Anmeldung/Information and Registration:
Tel. +43 1 525 24-5052 oder 5053
infoATethno-museum.ac.at
Teilnahmegebühr/Participation Fee: € 40,- (inkl. Ust.)
Ermäßigt/Reduction (Studenten/Students, Mitglieder des Vereins Freunde der Völkerkunde
und des Vereins der Freunde des KHM ): €15,- (inkl. Ust.)
Roundtable Discussion: Benin as Trademark: Eintritt frei/Free Admission
Begrenzte Teilnehmerzahl/Limited number of participants
Anmeldung und Einzahlung bis spätestens 27. April 2007/Registration and Payment
will be
closed by 27th April 2007.
Konferenzsprache ist Englisch
Conference language is English
Einzahlung/Payment
Konto Nr. / Account Number 92.057.968
Österreichische Postsparkasse
Blz. / Bank Code60000
IBAN: AT186000000092057968
SWIFT Code: OPSKATWW
Bitte geben Sie bei der Einzahlung den Verwendungszweck an/Please specify that
payment is for: „208617/Symposium Benin“
Registration
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