The bronze sculptures come from the Bastar area in the heart of India, where the so-called “indigenous people” or Adivasis still live today. Impressive with their unusually powerful and highly stylized depictions of powerful gods and their representatives on earth in a trance, they bear witness to a largely unknown but still vibrant culture.


This first monograph, based on Cornelia Mallebrein's decades of research into the rural and tribal art of Central India, presents the diversity of bronzes, their stylistic features and iconographic details, as well as photographs of rituals, festivals and dancers in trance. A report also shows the socio-cultural background of the sculptures and their production with portraits of casters, priests and sacred dancers. A rare insight.


The book is published for an exhibition at the Museum Rietberg, Zurich.


Text in German.

Other: Museum Rietberg