Felipe's collecting methods

Dublin Core

Title

Felipe's collecting methods

Subject

Museum Felipe Osa Angüé

Description

Felipe's collection process was innovative and challenged standardized Western museology practices and colonial biases that often positioned African art in a lower stage or simply cataloged them as ethnographic objects, decontextualizing much of their cultural value and purpose. He focused on obtaining objects no longer manufactured today, such as stools, bieri (reliquary figures), masks, ceramic plates and pots, metal ornaments, and decorative elements. These items were often linked to practices that have since disappeared, like metallurgy and pottery. Felipe’s approach involved searching for the owners of the desired objects, asking for authorization to collect them, and negotiating a type of reward or compensation for the owners in exchange for the artifacts: "Felipe Osá has dedicated many years to collecting objects from various Fang villages that are no longer being made today: stools, Bieri figures, masks, plates, and pots. He usually acquired them when their owners no longer found them useful, and often they came from old, abandoned settlements. Even though these were discarded objects that no one used, Felipe Osá sought out their owners, asked for their permission to collect the items, and negotiated some form of compensation (money, other utilitarian objects that he made). In this way, the forest museum of Felipe Osá became filled with objects and their biographies, with the stories and symbolic meanings they contain.” (72)

The museum is unique in that it is not advertised through any media nor does it have set opening hours. Visitors typically learn about it through word of mouth. Historians Alba Valenciano and Llorenç Picornell describe the museum experience as immersive and personal: “Using a wooden mask, Felipe Osá transforms himself into the narrator-character who guides the journey through the social life of the exhibited objects. After the welcoming and introduction, visitors make a donation to the museum. In exchange, Felipe (no longer wearing the mask), ‘gifts’ to the visitors three objects. It is not about physically owning them, but rather it offers the possibility of selecting three pieces among all those on display whose meaning you want to know. Then, he explains how they are manufactured, what they were used for and what properties they had, and clarifies any doubts we have about it” (p. 72).

Valenciano and Picornell assert that Felipe’s method represents a form of patrimonial activation outside the dominant power structures and discourses. In this setting, the objects do not convey their stories independently; it is Felipe who brings them to life with his narratives (p. 74). This way, the objects in the museum are not placed in display cases or on pediestals as in colonial museums but are displayed in a kind of altar. This creates proximity with the visitor and breaks the barrier between visitors and objects. Pieces can be touched and examined in depth. The exhibition does not differentiate between old pieces and those reproduced by Felipe throughout his life, challenging Western constructions and perceptions of ‘cultural authenticity.’

Creator

Alexis Hernando Cubas

Source

MUSEO FELIPE OSA ANGÜÉ. Ministerio de Cultura y Promoción Artesanal, GRUPO16NOVENOS. Consulted July 30th, 2024. Url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKVEkHereBE

Valenciano Mañé, Alba and Llorenç Picornell Gelabert. "Un museo sin vitrinas en la selva ecuatorial. La exposición de una experiencia". Hermes, n.º 1, 2009, pp. 67-76.

Publisher

GRUPO16NOVENOS

Date

2018

Rights

Creative Commons

Format

Written text

Language

Spanish

Coverage

Equatorial Guinea