Books

This catalogue accompanies an exhibition being held in Montreuil until February 15, 2008. It examines a little-known aspect of Malian culture, the tradition of marionette theater. The sogobo marionette theater has descended from a form that has existed for more than 600 years. It retains traditional values yet remains open to the influence of the changing world, and displays endlessly renewable artistic vitality. Functioning at the intersection of modernity and tradition, sogobo draws on many disciplines, including storytelling, music, song, mime, the sculptural arts, and choreography. In the small bush villages of Mali, the dances of the mask-marionettes as they are practiced today have lost none of their meaning or original spontaneity, as the richly colored characters and animals shown in this volume clearly demonstrate.