Mursi Lip Tray

Reproduced in Le Monde Premier /

The First World

Collection Jean-Pierre Dutilleux -

Exhibition Le Monde Premier

Mursi people, Omo Valley, Ethiopia 20th century

DESCRIPTION

Rare circular shaped and fired clay labial tray with painted white punctuation decoration on a red-brown background.

The object has a slightly concave shape and a raised peripheral rim. Its surface is animated by a regular decoration of hand-applied white dots, giving the whole a graphic aesthetic particularly characteristic of the Mursi culture.

These trays were worn in the lower lip of women after a gradual process of widening the labre. Made of clay or wood according to individual use and preference, they are one of the most emblematic cultural markers of the Omo Valley.

The example on display is particularly interesting because it is reproduced in Jean-Pierre Dutilleux's book Le Monde Premier / The First World, dedicated to the First Peoples encountered during his ethnographic expeditions.

It was also presented as part of the Le Monde Premier exhibition, organized around the ethnographic collection assembled by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux.

PROVENANCE

• Collection Jean-Pierre Dutilleux
• Reproduced in the book Le Monde Premier / The First World
• Exhibition Le Monde Premier
• Omo Valley, Ethiopia

INTÉRÊT

This example is of exceptional documentary interest as it is reproduced in Jean-Pierre Dutilleux's reference work Le Monde Premier / The First World, where it directly illustrates the aesthetic and identity traditions of the Mursi women of the Omo Valley. As such, it is not only an ethnographic object, but also a published witness to one of East Africa's most emblematic cultures.