Many Faces: Masks from Many Times and Many Places is a new exhibit on display at the Israel Museum.
Description:
Many Faces invites the public to view and experience masks from the Museum's diverse collection, including works from places such as Burkina Faso, Greece and Papua New Guinea, as well as, in a special display, an extremely rare locally-found prehistoric stone mask, dating back 9,000 years. Most of the masks on display served a ritual purpose and were believed to provide protection, healing, or strength in times of hardship. In many cultures, masks played an important role in rites of passage from childhood to adulthood, in funerary rites marking the transition from this world to the next, and in festivals celebrating changes of season and other cosmic events. Although masks now play less of a cultic role than they once did, their universal meaning remains and continues to influence our relationships with ourselves and others. Many Faces offers visitors an opportunity to enter into the world of the mask, while retaining certain "safe" boundaries between viewer and object. The exhibition is curated by guest curator Efrat Natan.
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