wounds and wonders

This work was developed for the contemporary arts program Points of Passage at the baroque Melk Abbey in Austria. In 2014, ten artists, dancers and authors were invited to create special site-specific installations. They were shown across the whole area accessible to the visitors of the monastery, from the exhibition halls to the garden and the church.

Moussa Kone related his work to the Colman breviary which was handed out to pilgrims in Melk during the 18th century. According to popular belief at that time, the Christian booklet had the supernatural, magical power to protect its owner from bad fortune. Superstition can’t be tolerated, so the church finally stopped the production of the prints, but many staples of these magic papers survived in the abbey’s library.

In forty drawings, wounds and wonders revolves around the human body. It features many of the cruelties and tortures the so-called “Saint Colman” of the abbey had to endure according to his legend or the wonders that happened directly at the abbey. There, people worshipped his decomposing body and ended up with his bones in a baroque glass sarcophagus.

The depictions of his wounds and wonders and all the pain and pleasure “gives the print enough power to ward off evil again” (Kone). It should be noted, that Colman is only a so-called saint, because he never was officially canonized by the Vatican - what did not significantly affect his remains’ effectiveness. Also, he was not killed for his belief, rather his violent death was caused by a misunderstanding - a translation issue - what made him suspicious of being a spy.

Combined with blessings or sayings to ward off evil in Yorùbá language, wounds and wonders takes the form of a printed sheet. It builds a bridge to the origins of faith and the human yearning to experience the divine.

To Kone’s surprise, during the exhibition Points of Passage, the Melk Abbey decided to print the artwork as a real book. The drawings in form of a “printed sheet mimicking a book production” became a real printed booklet, which can now be picked up at the Melk Abbey’s shop. It was published on the holiday of “Saint Colman” 2014 and distributed to the pilgrims.