L'arbre à palabres is a permanent

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

located in Douala (

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

). Created by the architecte Frédéric Keiff in 2007, it looks like a palaver tree, whose trunk and branches are made of painted

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

rods, while attached fragments of colored

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

represent leaves.

The artwork

The Arbre à Palabre by Frédéric Keiff is a palaver tree whose trunk and branches are made of painted

rods, while attached fragments of colored

represent leaves. The installation is more than 5 meters tall with a canopy circumference of 7 meters, and it is equipped with wooden slabs embedded in the trunk, serving as benches. It is a passageway installation. Initially conceived to substitute the former palaver tree of Douala, a huge

baobab ''Adansonia'' is a genus made up of eight species of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). They are placed in the Malvaceae family, subfamily Bombacoideae. They are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia.Tropic ...

located in the district of Bonaberi, which fell down in 1993, the symbolic meaning of the installation forced some changes in the process. Traditionally, around the palaver tree, the chief of the village and the council members (the so-called notables) meet and seat in order to take the most important political and social decisions concerning the community, and it is there that tradition values were orally transmitted through generations. This artwork became the subject of a long discussion between the chief of the village and the notables, who finally decided to forbid a foreign artist to place his artwork next to the rest of the former palaver tree. However, it was important that Keiff’s installation was positioned in a public space, easily accessible to inhabitants in order to guarantee that the contemporary palaver tree would keep on holding its symbolic function as a meeting, discussion, and sharing point. The superior chief of Douala, the Prince René Duala Manga Bell, offered one of his properties in Bonanjo for repositioning the Arbre à Palabre that was inaugurated for SUD 2007 and officially donated to the city of Douala. The park where the Arbre à Palabre is located belongs to the Bell family, even if the installation itself is in the public domain. This area is surrounded by three historical monuments of Douala: to the North, the Vault of kings Bell, where today the same René Douala Manga Bell lies; to the South, the Espace

doual'art doual'art is a non profit cultural organisation and art centre founded in 1991 in Douala, Cameroon and focussed on new urban practices of African cities. History doual'art was registered as a non profit organization in 1992 and it was establish ...

(funding agency of the project) from which one can clearly see the

Palace of the Kings Bell The Palace of King Bell situated in Douala is a building constructed in 1905 by the Germans for King Auguste Manga Ndumbe (King Bell). The building is also known as ''La Pagode''; this name comes from the French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline, wh ...

, commonly known as “La Pagode”, built in 1905 by German colonizers for the king Auguste Manga Ndoumbe; and, finally, to the West, the Old law court building.

The artwork

See also

Bibliography

References

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