A BAULE WOOD SPIRIT FIGURE COUPLE

A BAULE WOOD SPIRIT FIGURE COUPLE
A BAULE WOOD SPIRIT FIGURE COUPLE
Ivory Coast, Baule

80 cm high each

Provenance: Vittorio Bellini (1936-2009) collection.

These majestic sculptures reflect the belief of the Baule people that there is a world parallel to ours, called 'blolo', inhabited by the spirits of human beings: each new born has a spirit that comes from 'blolo', to which it will return once dead. Ideally, each person also has a spiritual partner: the woman has a 'blolo bian', or a man from the other world, just as every man has a 'blolo bla', a woman from the other world.