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 Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region (Cameroon), Littoral Region. It was home to Central Africa's largest port, now being replaced by Kribi port. It has the country ...

(

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

). Created by the architecte

Frédéric Keiff Frédéric Keiff (born 1973) is a French architect and artist. He lives and works in Strasbourg, France. Biography Frédéric Keiff was born in 1973 in Metz. He is a postgraduate at the Faculty of Arts of Strasbourg in 2000, graduated in arch ...

in 2007, it looks like a palaver tree, whose trunk and branches are made of painted

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () 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, forming much of Earth's o ...

rods, while attached fragments of colored

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

represent leaves.

The artwork

The Arbre à Palabre by

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 of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). The eight species of ''Adansonia'' are native to Africa, Australia, and Madagascar but have also been introduced to other regions of the world, including Barb ...

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 René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminine ...

, 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 Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...

, 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 A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...

, commonly known as “La Pagode”, built in 1905 by German colonizers for the king

Auguste Manga Ndoumbe Auguste may refer to: People Surname * Arsène Auguste (1951–1993), Haitian footballer * Donna Auguste (born 1958), African-American businesswoman * Georges Auguste (born 1933), Haitian painter * Henri Auguste (1759–1816), Parisian gold ...

; and, finally, to the West, the Old law court building.

The artwork

See also

Bibliography

References

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