I took a late afternoon flight to Paris on the 23rd of April (the eve of the official departing date to Peru), where I met my trip companion, Marie Hélène, whom I would be sharing a hotel room with at Orly, Athis Mons.
The following morning I headed towards Pont d'Alma and although I was expecting Quai Branly Museum to be an interesting Museum to visit I was surprised to find out it is much more than that, once the invaluable artefacts are displayed in such a way that the visitor is likely to be taken into their geographic and cultural contexts, thus having a feeling of being unexpectedly transported into another dimension.
I soon immersed myself into the world of masks and statues, which according to Claude Lévi Strauss " le masque cache autant qu'il révele ni autant qu'il affirme" and was mesmerised by the wide variety of cultural representations I dared photograph (very few of of them, in fact) from an equally wide number of continents.
Amongst those I was particularly impressed with Fertility and Maternity related objects, as well as artefacts from Mexico (a country I have already visited) and Peru I would be shortly visiting.
Statue from Melanasia, Papouasia - New Guinea (left). 1912 Bagante statue from Cameroon (right)
Two representations of Chicomecoatl, the Aztec Goddess of sustenance, especially of maize wearing the amacalli (Mexico)
Zacateca or Cornudo, representing a Shaman, dating back to 300 B.C (left) and Tlaloc representing the deity associated with rain, fertility and water (right).
1100-1450 Chancay vases from Peru
Pre- Hispanic vases from the Andean culture
(To be continued)
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