A female Lobi ti puo sculpture, Burkina Faso, standing on her two chunky feet, her arms elevated to the sky, almost in a crucified position, protruding stomach, cylindric neck, oval shaped head with roughly cut facial features, an emphasise on the eyes; cracks; signs of use, incl. certificate of origin and provenance.

" The Lobi people live in a vast geographical area that stretches from Burkina Fasso, to the Ivory Coast and into Ghana. Villages are spread out over wide areas and are made up of several compounds."

"A dangerous person (ti puo) refers to all those bateba "duntundara" who are neither ordinary nor paralyzed bateba. They either show an explicit defensive posture, "holding up" (ban) one hand or both hands at an angle next to the head, or "extending" (laami) them horizontally, which are unusual in humans. These latter bateba are also called extraordinary bateba. Since dangerous people are more effective in fighting witches than ordinary bateba, the dangerous bateba, if they are on the same shrine with ordinary ones, determine what they have to do. The Lobi say: The ordinary bateba "belong" (bine) to the dangerous ones." Piet Meyer, "Art and Religion of the Lobi" Museum Rietber Zurich, 1981, p. 88. "

Then "my dancer" would be a person who belongs to all other people. But would she then be a “dangerous person”? Or is it something else entirely that gives this character her “power” over others? If you read Piet Meyer's comments on the "ti puo" figures (ibid., p. 88), you get the impression of a conjuring superstition that the Lobi practice with these figures. Witches should be intimidated, their spell broken and based on dominance, all other "bateba" should be subordinate to the "ti puo" figures. Is it really like that? What gives the “ti puo” figures with their outstretched, raised arms their “power”? When I asked Kilité Noufé about it, there was a smile on his face. He makes these figures as he sees them. He couldn't say what other carvers do. When I compare Kilité's facial expression when asked this question and a ti puo figure like mine, I get the impression of something playful, bright and anything but powerfully evocative, as it sounds in Piet Meyer's portrayal. Is it all just a projection, my projection, that comes into play here? Hard to say. After all, you can't jump over your own shadow. But I think that for understanding so-called "Primitive art" should first and foremost focus on the work of art itself, not necessarily the words or even the interpretations of a carver and certainly not ethnological explorations. All perspectives that are all too often misleading - for whatever reason.



Kilité Noufé looking at his portrait and his works in the Rietberg catalog. For the first time in 30 years he learned about this publication. Everyone in the village is amazed at their "famous carver", whose importance in Europe they had never heard of. If you compare the most exposed sculpture of Christianity - the crucified man - whose outstretched arms are fixed to the crossbar of a torture post, with the outstretched arms of pi puo figures, the former appears to me to be the figure of a horrible, mystical incantation. The ti puo figure of Lobi, with her arms raised in so many different ways, is characterized by so much freedom and detachment in her gestures that it is difficult for me to agree with the image of a belief system fixated on power, as echoed by Piet Meyer. More than any statement made by a carver, even more than ethnological reports, the art of the Lobi gives me the most direct information about what is expressed in them. “Power” is a blanket term that can be interpreted either way. Art expresses itself suddenly. She knows no interpretation. She wants to be seen as she is and of course everyone sees her differently. This is the freedom that is inherent in her. For me, the ti puo figures of the Lobi are not documents of fixation, of the fetishistic desire to dominate others, as ethnology would have me believe, but their "power" lies in freedom, absoluteness in the best sense of the word... And that is - by the way - probably the key to understanding the "religion" of the Lobi. Posted before 30th November 2010 by wj.

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Height: 41 cm
Weight: 730 g