«Africa Pulp»

A project by M.S. Bastian & Isabelle L. in collaboration with Kudjoe Affutu & Regula Tschumi

«Pulp» is a figure invented by the Swiss artists M.S. Bastian and Isabelle L. After having seen miniature coffins in the Art Museum Berne in 2006, the artists asked Regula Tschumi to provide them some «Pulp» figures constructed like these miniatures they had seen. M.S. Bastian made a few sketches, and Regula Tschumi developed later a group of «Africa Pulps» with  the coffin artist Kudjoe Affutu in Ghana.

In 2011 Kudjoe Affutu created a second group of Pulp figures. The starting point was a visit of M.S. Bastian and Isabelle L. to the Tinguely Museum Basle where they saw Kudjoe Affutu’s Hummer shaped coffin and several of his miniatures in the shape of cars in the Tinguely Museum. For this second group of «Africa Pulps» Regula Tschumi was again documenting their creation in Ghana. This time the «Pulp» figures were much bigger than in 2007, and Kudjoe Affutu made also a «Pulp» coffin and two «Pulps» sitting in a palanquin.

A selection of «Africa Pulps» from 2007 is exhibited since November 2017 in the permanent collection of the MEN in «L’impermanence des choses».

 

The German ARTMAPP March-June 2018 dedicates an article to the history of the «Africa Pulps».