Sepik

"This exhibition presents a collection of 230 sculptures linked to the Sepik Valley, a large swampland in the north of Papua New Guinea. Since the first millennium B.C. this area has sheltered peoples who live on the banks of or in areas close to the Sepik River and its tributaries. The exhibition gradually unveils a major figure common to all cultures of the "lower" and "middle" Sepik: the founding ancestor(s). In Sepik societies, the figure of the ancestor does not immediately show itself. Instead it is gradually understood in all its complexity. The exhibition trail allows visitors to apprehend the multiple variants under which these ancestral figures manifest themselves, from their public forms to their "hidden" forms."--Museum website.