
Keyezua
In traditional African culture, the mask is much more than an object that camouflages the face: it is an intermediary that allows the living to reconnect with the spirits, to get out of a suffering or an impasse. With this in mind, the Angolan artist Keyezua has created her work Fortia, which means strength. It shows a woman with an imperial appearance, wearing a red dress and various masks: the artist made them with the help of disabled craftsmen from her region. Each one tells a memory of the artist about the handicap his father suffered from. It is a sort of therapeutic ritual: to externalise this ordeal in order to regain one's inner power. It is also a tribute to the handicapped craftsmen who have accompanied her in this project, demonstrating their ability to create and thus overcoming the prejudices they suffer.