Mbari (Igbo sculpture house)
Large temporary sculpture house built by an Owerri-Igbo community as an offering to the earth deity Ala; filled with painted clay figures and ritually abandoned to decay.
Mbari is a large, temporary sculpture house built by a community of the Owerri Igbo, under the direction of a dibia (ritual specialist), as a propitiatory offering to Ala, the earth deity, and other forces. The structure contains scores to hundreds of painted clay figures and is ritually abandoned — allowed to decay — once the commissioning cycle is complete.
Mbari explains why intact mbari sculptures are rare, why they raise complex de-consecration questions when removed, and why Herbert Cole's 1982 monograph Mbari: Art and Life among the Owerri Igbo is the indispensable reference for any Owerri-region clay or polychrome figure. The institution shows Igbo art patronage operating at community scale without any royal court.