Sogo Bo marionette painted several times, the last of which using industrial colors that emphasized the expressiveness of its face.
Sculpted with the volumes and aesthetic canons characteristic of Bambara sculpture, this marionette has come down to us without the clothes worn during the last feast or theatrical performance in which it participated( the red fabric earrings have been saved), but it is still fully functional: by pulling the string in fact the arms resume moving the pestle mimicking the typically female activity of beating millet to produce flour.
To compare this puppet with others and explore the subject in more detail, it may be interesting to browse the catalog Sogo, bamana masks and puppets, Claude and Marthe Everlè collection , Mazzotta Editore, 2012 for the exhibition at the Museo delle Culture, Heleneum in Lugano between October 2012 and March 2013
With plexiglass base most likely made between the 1970s and 1980s.