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Contemporary Vodun arts of Ouidah, Benin
African Arts, Winter, 2001 by Dana Rush
The contemporary Vodun arts of the city of Ouidah in the Republic of Benin are a testament to the strength and flexibility of a belief system that is perpetually inventing, reinventing, and modifying itself. Their embodying aesthetic reflects remarkable adherence to traditional themes and structures that concurrently celebrate conspicuous signs of change. In the constant negotiation between ideologies that are old and new, local and distant, the artificial boundaries between "traditional" and "contemporary" Vodun arts are dissolved, merged, and transcended. It is precisely the ever-changing, all-encompassing nature of Vodun that allows this transcendence. (1)
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Ouidah narrates the rich and complex history of Benin for local and international audiences through contemporary arts that represent gods and kings and that depict the atrocities of enslavement. The works on permanent display throughout the city--envisioned as a kind of an open-air museum--include Vodun temple murals, large-scale cement and metal sculptures, and commemorative monuments. Paintings, appliques, collages, masks, and examples of other art forms punctuate the cityscape and are displayed in local museums.
Ouidah 92: The First International Festival of Vodun Arts and Cultures
Much of this art was commissioned in 1992 as a collaborative effort of UNESCO and the newly democratic Beninese government in preparation for Ouidah 92: The First International Festival of Vodun Arts and Cultures, held February 8-18, 1993. (2) For that event, intended to recognize and celebrate transatlantic Vodun, Vodun priests and priestesses, religious practitioners, government officials, artists, tourists, scholars, and many others traveled to the city from Haiti, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil the United States, and various European countries. Special guests such as Mama Lola and Pierre Fatumbi Verger were honored. Based on the premise of a reunion of Africa and the African Diaspora through the commonalities of Vodun and Vodun-derived religious systems, this international collaboration was successful not merely in authenticating Benin's new political and religious freedom but in demonstrating it at a global level.
The arts and practices of Vodun had in theory been forbidden under the preceding Marxist-Leninist regime. The support of Ouidah 92 by the new government, then headed by President Nicephore Dieudonne Soglo, (3) marked the first time in postcolonial history that the state played the important role of patron of the arts. Its sponsorship was instrumental in encouraging the revival of Vodun arts in particular. (4)
Painters and sculptors from Benin, Haiti, Brazil, and Cuba were commissioned to create works dealing with Vodun and its various manifestations in Africa and the African Diaspora, as well as to represent aspects of Beninese history. Although some of the artists to be discussed here are practicing adepts of Vodun, the festival was conceived as a commercial rather than a religious enterprise. Intended to promote tourism, it was aimed at an international audience, an international press, and the international art market.
Nevertheless, the impetus itself for Ouidah 92 was Vodun, and the spirits (vodun) played a part in the project at a variety of levels. At the beginning of the festival, Vodun spirits were propitiated to ensure its success, as they are for almost every endeavor in Ouidah. When contemporary arts are produced for an international market, they can still be efficacious.
Even the symbol for Ouidah 92 adds a religious facet to the event. The image is of a mask, based on a Yoruba Gelede mask representing a Roman Catholic Sarafina angel, in the collection of the Alexandre Senou Adande Porto-Novo Ethnographic Museum. (5) The image was reproduced on T-shirts, book covers, posters, and cloth for local people and foreign visitors alike (Fig. 1), and was painted on the white bases of all of the newly commissioned large-scale sculptures throughout Ouidah. Since then, it has taken on other spiritual manifestations: many people interpret it not as a Gelede mask but, among other things, as a symbol of aze (roughly, "witchcraft," as demonstrated by a person turning into a bird) (6) or a representation of Shango, the Yoruba orisha of thunder and lightning whose main symbol is a double-bladed ax, perceived in the wings of the Sarafina angel.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
Ouidah 92 was more than a celebration of democracy, religious freedom, and cultural pride; more than a means of promoting local artists; and more than a consciously organized attempt to bring tourism to Benin. It was a reinvention and self-creation of aspects of Beninese history meant to appeal on an emotional level to foreign audiences, especially those of African descent.
Four main sites in the city display art commissioned for the festival: the Sacred Forest, the Brazil House, the Slave Route, and the house of the Supreme Chief of Vodun in Benin, Daagbo Hounon. Before turning to those sites, I wish to introduce several of the Beninese contemporary artists whose work is installed there: Cyprien Tokoudagba, Calixte and Theodore Dakpogan, Simonet Biokou, Dominique Kouas, and Yves Apollinaire Pede. The contributions of African Diaspora artists Edouard Duval-Carrie, Jose Claudio, and Manuel Mendive will also be discussed in relation to Daagbo Hounon's house. (7)
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