BRUNEAF is returning this week with a selection of tribal art spanning Africa, Oceania, Asia, and Australia.BRUNEAF, or to give it its full name, the Brussels Non-European Art Fair, fits well with the colonial legacy of Belgium. Despite, or perhaps due to, its highly problematic, and only partially examined, colonial legacy, Belgium remains one of the European centers of what is still called Non-European, Tribal, or even (unfortunately) primitive antiques.BRUNEAF developed from the first unified public presentation of a handful of tribal antique dealers in 1983 in the Sablon area. It is now one of the leading such fairs in Europe. Since 1996, the fair has included international galleries, including France, Italy, Spain, the UK, Netherlands, and the US. Today, it includes African, Oceanian, Indonesian, pre-Columbian, Asiatic, and Australian Aboriginal art.Objets d’art spanning continents, sculptures, masks, weaponry, jewelry, coins, fabrics, and traditional objects with sacred or ceremonial significance will again be on display in the Grand Sablon area of Brussels.Highlights among the objects exhibited will include two Australian Aboriginal works offered by the Brussels-based Aboriginal Signature. The first is John Mawurndjul’s 2005 “Mardayin Secret Ceremony at Milmilmgkan Site,” executed in 2005 in natural pigments on eucalyptus bark. The second is Ningura Napurrula’s “Rockhole Site of Wirrulnga – Ancestral Women’s Ceremonies” (2005), from the cultural center Papunya Tula.Galerie L’Ibis will bring a sunken relief of a Kushite Nobleman from Egypt dating from between 670 – 650 B.C., while Yannik Van Ruysevelt will present a pair of wooden snow goggles from the Punuk Islands in Alaska, dated between the 8th and the 15th century.Another item of interest is a Malangan sculpture from New Ireland in Papua New Guinea, made in timber and parinarium resin, collected between 1907 and 1909, and presented by Martin Doustar. The only other such “toktok” figure with two heads, one on each end of the sculpture, is found in Melbourne, Australia.BRUNEAF 2016 will run January 21 through 24 on various locations in Grand Sablon, Brussels.
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