Aklama Helper Spiritis des Éwé - Adan

Aklama
Helper Spiritis of the Ewe and Dangme from the Study collection of Horst Antes

Book New

German/English Monograph
24 x 32 cm 504 pages,
375 full colour plates
Edited 2016 by Studienstiftung Hors Antes
ISBN 978-39818026-0-3

Drawing on the comprehensive collection of Aklama, sacred sculptures of the Ewe and Dangme living in southern Ghana, assembled in the Study Collection of the painter Horst Antes, the authors Gigi Pezzoli, Philipp Plath and Nii Quarcoopome examine their historical context, religious significance, ceremonial use and manufacturing. The Aklama are small figures, animals and objects, accounting mostly the size of a hand, serving as esprits auxiliaires to the Ewe and Dangme, two ethnic groups settled in the border area between Ghana and Togo. These objects, distinguished by their astonishingly variable design, have been photographed by Rémi Bazan with impressive acuteness and remarkable empathy.

The monograph on the Aklama is the third publication about non-European art conceived by Horst Antes and edited by the Studienstiftung Hors Antes. The book is richly illustrated, depicting on 375 full colour plates 1424 Aklama, 127 of them at full scale. The essays and figures allow collectors, museums, and ethnologists to discover for the first time this yet neglected culture arisen in the estuary of the Volta river. The monograph will foster the study and conservation of this unknown culture.