Producing, Collecting, and Exhibiting Bizango Sculptures from Haiti: Transatlantic Vodou on the International Art Scene

Art is a well-established field of inquiry for anthropologists and art historians working on Haiti. Some recurring issues addressed by contemporary scholars are art's origins and the role of external influences in its emergence and development. It is now accepted that the development of Haitian art began before the creation of the Centre d'art, a training and exhibition space developed by the United States artist Dewitt Peters in 1944, and is not limited to the art naïf that came to epitomize the country's artistic production in the minds of art historians, art dealers, and artists themselves. A continuing issue, however, is clarifying the relationship between different types of artistic production and Vodou, the Haitian vernacular religion. “Vodou art” has come to define, not so much a specific range of works produced for the practice of Vodou, but artwork whose manufacture is inspired by a Vodou worldview, whether used for a secular or a religious purpose. As a result, many works that have been created for art dealers, collectors, or museums have been too quickly categorized by buyers or curators, if not art historians and art reviewers, as “sacred art” or “religious art,” when not only their function but also their appearance or the story they tell does not exist in a Vodou context. In this sense, the creation of these artworks reveals more about Vodou as a vibrant source of inspiration than it refers to the actual use of these works in a Vodou setting.1The emergence on the international art scene of Bizango statues, a new type of sculpture initially represented as originating from secret societies, provides an occasion to partake in this debate. Bizango is the name of a secret society in Haiti,2 and the term has recently been used to refer to statues supposedly found in that society's meeting places. In November 2009, the Quai Branly Museum (QBM) acquired a statue presented as the effigy of a Bizango emperor3 (Figs. 1a–b), and one year later was offered a Bizango empress for purchase (Figs. 2a–b). The QBM bought the statue partly to enrich its collection of Haitian artifacts—then amounting to fewer than 100 objects—and partly to have a record of these sculptures’ sudden appearance on the international art market and in museums.These so-called Bizango statues4 were exhibited for the first time—but looking quite different from the ones in circulation today—in 1995 at the Fowler Museum at UCLA.5 They came onto the international art market and into museums, seemingly out of nowhere, in 2007, when the Musée d'ethnographie de Genève (MEG) exhibited more than fifty of them in a show entitled Le vodou, un art de vivre (Vodou, a way of life). Since then, more and more of them are seen in museums, art galleries, and at Caribbean art fairs. To date, roughly 200 sculptures are in circulation between Haiti, North America, and Europe. They are bought and sold, traded between galleries, and exhibited in the most prestigious anthropological museums. They are also jealously guarded by collectors in the cellars of Parisian mansions and in penthouses lining New York City's Central Park.These striking statues—which are presented dramatically in groups, like a small army spoiling for a fight—raise a number of issues. Did they ever have a ritual function within secret societies, or were they made exclusively for artistic and commercial purposes? Is the distinction between a ritual object and an art object as clear as all that? What do we know about the secret societies they are supposed to have come from? What can they tell us about new attempts to institutionalize Vodou and transform it into “heritage”?The QBM statue of the Bizango emperor was purchased from a French art dealer familiar with Haiti. He had bought it from two Vodou practitioners, who at the time were sèvitè of the Sacred Temple Na-Ri-Véh 777 in Port-au-Prince.6 According to him, the statue represented “the Bizango Emperor-Empress, a hermaphrodite,” and went by the name of “Bakala Bizango Bazin,”7 “number one in the Bizango army,” an army of slaves and freed slaves who were said to have organized the resistance and struggle against the institution of slavery in the eighteenth century. Bakala Bizango Bazin was a “tailor, sorcerer, and first cousin of the famous Mackandal.”8 The art dealer had financed two exceptional rituals in order to obtain it. The first was a ritual of desacralization, because the statue was going to be moved from a sacred to a profane space. The art dealer attended the ritual on the night of September 24, 2008, at the temple of Na-Ri-Véh (Fig. 3). The second ritual involved the replacement of this statue by three statues of lesser rank, captains called Simbo, Diab, and Bizango (Fig. 4).9 This occurred at a “ceremony of the Kings” in the same temple, at the beginning of January 2009.10 The statue was said to have come from a secret society near Bois-Caïman.This account contained very precise information on the origin and geographical provenance of the statue, its transfer from a secret society in northern Haiti to an ounfò in the capital, and on the performance of the rituals enabling it to pass into a profane space. Bakala Bizango Bazin is a particularly prestigious figure: He features in narratives of the foundation of the Haitian Republic. He is said to be the cousin of Makandal and to come from an ounfò near Bois-Caïman, an emblematic site in Haiti's national history because it is where the slave revolt against the French started in August 1791.11The QBM purchased the Bizango for its aesthetic qualities, to enlarge its collections on the African diaspora,12 and also to have a material record of the multiplication of Bizango statues in Europe. Bakala Bizango Bazin arrived in Paris in November 2009.13 On January 12, 2010, an earthquake destroyed whole areas of Port-au-Prince. Some weeks later, the art dealer owner told the QBM that the Na-Ri-Véh temple had been destroyed,14 a fact confirmed by another art dealer from Port-au-Prince.15 The QBM curator André Delpuech, who visited Port-au-Prince in April 2010, was unable to go to the temple or meet the temple's sèvitè who had survived the tragedy. Any serious research into the statue thus seemed irreparably compromised (Delpuech 2011).The QBM's Bizango is no different from all the others in circulation since 2007: All are anthropomorphic, between 1.28 and 1.49 meters high, with some as tall as 1.79 meters. They have an aggressive look and warrior pose and make many spectators feel uneasy. Their surface is sewn together from pieces of quilted material, using the red and black colors of the Bizango secret society, and they are covered with fragments of mirror. Almost all of them have a human skull within the head, and parts of it, such as the teeth, are sometimes visible. Most of them are bloated, maimed, or have amputated limbs. They are armed like fighters, with shields, spears, swords, and chains. Some have horns, while others have large wings. Most are standing, but some are seated on chairs or thrones. In some cases, a warrior hierarchy is explicit through the figures they represent, from simple fighter to captain, general, king, queen, and emperor.Although considered an emperor, the QBM figure is relatively small at 1.28 meters. It stands swathed in a cape, holding a large pair of scissors in its right hand and a walking stick in its left. Its eyes, body, arms, and legs are covered with mirror fragments. A scan showed the presence of a human skull within the head, and within the body a wooden supporting structure, buttons, a pair of Fila sneakers, and small pieces of reflective material that are difficult to identify (Fig. 5). During the desacralization ceremony, two new scarves, one red and one black, were tied round its neck and a cutlass was placed between its legs in the likeness of a male sex organ (Fig. 6).We know little about these Bizango statues. Before their spectacular entrance onto the scene in the 2007 MEG show, they had been described on only two occasions: for the Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou exhibition in Los Angeles in 1995 and in the first issue of the new series of Gradhiva (Celius 2005). In both cases, the account given by anthropologist Rachel Beauvoir (1995, 2005) refers to statues that look quite different from the ones we know today, although they also belong to the collection that was partly displayed in Geneva. The discourse on these statues has been fleshed out since then, but it is still the prerogative of a very small circle of collectors, exhibition curators, and activists fighting to protect and preserve Vodou as cultural heritage.The MEG exhibition put Bizango on the map internationally.16 The statues exhibited there were part of the collection of Vodou or Vodou-related objects built up by Swiss-born Marianne Lehmann after she left Lausanne in 1957 to settle in Port-au-Prince with her Haitian husband. After the fall of Duvalier in 1986, impoverished Vodou practitioners began to sell off objects supposedly used in their rituals, and Lehmann purchased all that were presented to her in order to preserve them. In 1989, together with key Haitian personalities, she created the Foundation for the Preservation, Promotion, and Production of Haitian Cultural Artifacts (FPVPOCH), to protect and exhibit her collection of some 2–3,000 items (Figs. 7 a–c).17 A traveling exhibition, Le Vodou, un art de vivre, comprising some 300 items, was rented out to anthropological museums to raise the funds required for a cultural center and museum of Vodou in Port-au-Prince, where her collection was to be permanently exhibited. This show, which opened in 2007 at the MEG (Fig. 8), was displayed in major European anthropological museums through 2012: the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, the Museum of World Culture in Göteborg, the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin, and the Übersee-Museum in Bremen. In 2012, the collection crossed the Atlantic to be presented first at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa (Fig. 9), and then at the Field Museum in Chicago (Fig. 10).Parallel to these shows, more Bizango statues were displayed outside museums. More and more exhibitions were arranged and more and more art dealers offered Bizango statues. Two galleries in Port-au-Prince began selling these works as contemporary art. They supplied Bizango to other galleries in the United States and Europe, as well as to museums of anthropology. The Dutch Afrika Museum bought thirteen statues from a gallery owner in Port-au-Prince in 2009, which were displayed as a major installation the same year as part of the Roots and More exhibition devoted to the religions of the African Diaspora (Hübner and Welling 2009). At the end of the same year, Galerie Vibrations in Paris displayed some thirty Bizango statues that had been purchased that June, according to the gallery director in New York (Barbereau 2011). She claimed that they belonged a mambo who had fled Haiti's Duvalier regime in the 1960s for New York, taking with her some thirty statues. She had set up a Vodou temple in New York, where the rites and ceremonies had been performed right up to her death in 1998. It was her grandson who parted with the statues, to the benefit of the Paris gallery (Fig. 11).18Actually, the stories told by many collectors and art dealers, either when interviewed by the authors of this article or the curators of the shows, or in their own publications, follow a similar pattern. These stories include six stages: the very first encounter with Bizango statues; their orgin; their emotional impact; the urgent need to purchase them; the desacralization process; and finally the desire to obtain more. Here are the steps in greater detail:So although in April 2010 it was no longer possible to visit the Na-Ri-Véh temple, other stories were circulating in Port-au-Prince concerning Bizango exhibitions in Europe and the origin of the Bizango purchased by the QBM. These accounts, complemented by email exchanges and interviews with artists, art dealers, collectors, and anthropologists, a different for these statues, one in about Vodou, this time on the of secret art dealers in Port-au-Prince first in 2010 and then in 2012, that when the of the QBM's Bizango in the exhibition Le Le Le artist that was the and that had the statue to the Na-Ri-Véh temple (Delpuech 2011). had been the of by the name of one of the of and a artist of and which made in from the art of to which a by them on both them a quilted look The Bizango is similar to that of the made of used by the of the and After up with also a and the in Port-au-Prince, where they made objects using and pieces of After the 2010 earthquake they opened a new in some from the capital, where has now on is well on the international art works are exhibited at the Art and in In January Bizango statues were put on show at the gallery in as part of the exhibition The the the (Fig. is also in such as devoted to Haitian where a of one of a by and New of is on the of Art de a that as the most on contemporary Caribbean art (Fig. the name figures on some of the Bizango exhibited by the that made at the was not by who the exhibition, although that have whether made the statues for the secret society they were supposed to have come and when the statues were story of the origin and is as art dealers or Vodou museum curators, and collectors all seemed to the same of the history of the secret societies, and all for that they belong to a specific material This a in the of art and in of set of and which be accepted in order to belong the A the of and do we know about Haitian secret in They are represented in three different in the Haitian by anthropologists, and by to the by Marianne who they have seen or part in these societies them to be who the in They are their name They can be seen at and that of secret society are at make to meeting them. go out their which if they come a of a for anthropologists, have or to these In Le the secret In research on the secret societies of the these societies came into were on African secret societies, and the slave revolt of Since then, they have been involved in from the and in particularly when by Duvalier into of According to they their the that the a name that a warrior the of in the century. is confirmed by in a on Bizango in of a devoted to the figure of the there is a discourse in circulation today, by a very small of to the or to the of Vodou, which is in many to the discourse on secret than secret societies are and described as a to Haiti's of which have had the of the Haitian at The anthropologist Rachel a of the and a for the Lehmann exhibition, the origin and function of these secret societies in a with and She that they in of that they go to and that they are on African secret They the revolt against and their struggle now against a that only the of the most These societies had the ounfò from to which had been Haiti's The of slavery material and the artistic of these secret societies, the of and their The appearance of the the of which still an given to on a an and in the of Vodou, that the societies as were in fact In they are a within Vodou of and Their role is not to a but to protect They have a role and their They do as their are to the at but when they at it is to settle with and which is they be by and It is they who out the of a practice Beauvoir to be than because no one their of Marianne Lehmann and Rachel Beauvoir on Bizango belong to this space. The statues exhibited in the MEG came from an ounfò in the but no is for when they the The way they are displayed that they the army of their who the French army to put an end to slavery and to for Haiti. The exhibition of the Canadian Museum of History show in the and role of some of these statues and that the between the sacred and the profane only to be belong to both but at different of their A profane object sacred through the of an desacralization is the by which an object the of the a of the of the The ritual of desacralization is described or in the QBM's Bizango was at Na-Ri-Véh in the presence of the art dealer who it to the year later, attended the desacralization of the this time in (Fig. According to the sèvitè of the items be because they the of who be to where they came from by placed in a a ritual in a be with statues from the of which are the of exhibitions on African are the material of a in the of an or the of which are wooden statues with They are the or a of an The and of the in a to the and of the that the statue Before European were some or all of their Bizango do they in ritual or sacred if one that in a ritual is one of the the of African objects are they artistic and profane is this given the are between artistic and religious The objects used in Vodou are produced by or artists who very are sèvitè with in the of their They manufacture objects for others in their for and for art They sell their ritual objects to collectors if they encounter the between sacred and profane statues as that the Bizango has been with a or before it is in the it the sacred space of the ounfò or of the secret society for the profane this is from It is is it to of and to such a between a ritual object and a of we were to to this we be unable to the of an the of the of the of objects to the of and of Bizango statues Vodou has a show for and ever since the in Port-au-Prince in This the of Vodou by and many it to inspired with museum exhibitions on the “sacred of the of Bakala Bizango Bazin from to new by Vodou with secret societies and these societies the site of resistance ever since the The of Bizango statues on the European and North art also that a new has been in the and of Vodou for an international and its as cultural who for the of exhibitions the and of to look at the Afrika for its exhibition on the religions of the African Roots and of the The exhibition was for this museum of to as a museum of contemporary art The museum considered it to be the most exhibition ever there and a using and The was a Bizango with a who out with a like to on a with the (Fig. The installation of Bizango statues was to be the of the exhibition (Fig. The were in a and history of art by the installation The after the of one of most famous (Fig. and Welling 2009). there was no of the name of the and so the installation be called at The Field Museum in Chicago to this by Bizango on the and of the exhibition for Sacred of Haiti, thus between Vodou and secret societies, although this was to the of the The statues have about and many considered them so that up on against going to the these statues as the of exhibitions on Vodou the between Vodou and Bizango secret societies, do not the two and the secret these as an of resistance to Haiti's and is supposed to be the most part of Haitian Bizango figures created to North and European who can of has of these figures in Haiti that secret societies it not be more to this resistance while at the same time the of this material that to have been created What the of these secret societies of such if these societies were of resistance against has that the Lehmann to preserve Vodou as cultural is to by some of which a Vodou by a and on its own 2009). These were created after fall from in order to protect the ounfò from who Vodou on the that they had the Duvalier it is not that one can of a of This for an particularly international and who using the of Vodou to the This development of Vodou is both by who practice a Vodou as part of a to and and by some of the that for that these exhibitions a new in the development of European and and of Vodou, new art The to the of a by to on number of when we we had this had was it on we were put in with the sèvitè of the Na-Ri-Véh and a later we to that made the QBM's The sèvitè told us that the that had Bakala Bizango and had been to its origin in northern Haiti to the desacralization ceremony, had there the in of It also out from the The of one of the objects had not been in a desacralization ritual and so still In the of with this the of the like the by the different placed in a we the sèvitè of the Na-Ri-Véh ounfò in was The was from the of the Bizango queen, who had to in a the night The emperor Bakala had not one of of their as is the of African artwork exhibited in museums the of not be in of the of ritual The Na-Ri-Véh sèvitè that the of the artist be into has confirmed that is the of these covered with pieces of He first a Bizango one when was inspired to a that no one He has made of such statues and them all to be because they are the them with which is or three before them in ounfò (Fig. They were to or exhibited in Europe and North most prestigious anthropological museums, of by the art dealers by the It is because the was of that the of these statues be and that Bakala Bizango Bazin from the of Port-au-Prince right into the and Quai Branly

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