© Fredric Snitzer Gallery-with permission

 

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José Bedia: Muzidi Nkuyu
December 6 - 9, 2007

 

José Bedia: Muzidi Nkuyu is an Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Kabinett, installation featuring large-format works on paper by the Cuban artist, displayed in relation to a pre-1920 muzidi reliquary of the Beembe people of the Republic of the Congo. The artist’s original works, based on the African figure (called muzidi), reawaken the object’s spirit force (an nkuyu ancestor) in an environment of artistic and spiritual interaction.

The artist explains that his work engages the object beyond the formal or aesthetic to address the energy that still emanates from the reliquary figure. The words included in Bedia’s paintings play on the potential of the muzidi object to transition into a spirit manifestation, nkuyu. Once called in, the ancestor answers “sika, sika” to acknowledge he/she has entered the muzidi figure’s body.

Muzidi figures were created by the Beembe to “collect” the spirits of important familial ancestors. The objects were conceived as a form of spirit container. Once a spirit was enticed to enter the figure and “caught” within it, food and other offerings had to be made to honor and maintain the ancestor. Nkuyu, in muzidi form, would grant health and prosperity to its owners in exchange for their respect and attention.

José Bedia: Muzidi Nkuyu is organized by the Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, and curated by Manuel Jordán, Ph.D.