Confronting images in motion : abεbuu adekai and funerary practices among the Ga of Ghana

This paper stems from my research on abεbuu adekai, literally, “receptacles of proverbs,” and better known internationally as fantasy coffins. These artifacts constitute a widespread leitmotif within contemporary African art but have yet to be examined from an ethnographical perspective. Such coffin-sarcophagi were first built and employed in Accra in the 1960s, following Ghana’s independence. Their origin is usually attributed to a carpenter named Kane Kwei (1924-1992). The themes chosen for the coffins' shape – cocoa seeds, Mercedes Benz, onions, boats, and many others — represent aspects of everyday life that relate to notions of prestige and well-being. The coffins are brightly colored, varnished, and topped with sumptuous structures. The variety of motifs has steadily increased, and craftsmen are constantly devising new images. My presentation aimed at highlighting certain processes of mise en image or mise en figuration among the Ga of Ghana, focusing particularly on the funerary object-image – the coffin. Rather than dwelling on the question of whether these products can be classified as art, my research stresses inventiveness within the community in order to understand how adekai function in the local context, the ideas embedded in them, and how they communicate to a local audience

The Media-action of abebu adekai (Ghana's Sculptural Coffins) in the World Market and Design

Abebu adekai, literally “receptacles of proverbs”, known worldwide as fantasy coffins, are funeral sarcophagi used primarily by the Ga people who live in Accra, south Ghana.  These coffins rapidly achieved popularity abroad after they began to be presented as artwork in international exhibitions, and caught the interest of mass media.  Through the case of Eric Adjetey Anang (grandson of Kane Kwei), the article examines the intersection between the actual production of the coffins and the international market of mass media, fashion, tourism, décor, and design.  It also explores the way in which new media (Wikipedia first, then YouTube and Facebook) have given coffin producers a degree of visibility that has in turn prompted them to develop new and more effective working strategies.  Moreover, the experience of digital images has deeply transformed the production process, from creative modelling to reproduction techniques.  This recent phenomenon has led to a transformation: coffins are no longer funerary objects, they are actually objects for design; their producers are no longer woodcutters, but artists in the widest possible sense, and, as in the case of Anang, actors, performers, and managers.Abebu adekai, littéralement « récipients de proverbes », connus dans le monde entier comme des cercueils fantaisie, sont des cercueils funéraires utilisés principalement par le peuple ga vivant à Accra, au sud du Ghana. Ces cercueils ont rapidement acquis une grande popularité à l'étranger après qu'ils ont commencé à être présentés comme œuvres d'art dans les expositions internationales, attirant l'intérêt des médias de masse. À travers le cas d'Eric Adjetey Anang (petit-fils de Kane Kwei), l'article examine l'intersection entre la production des cercueils et le marché international des médias de masse, la mode, le tourisme, la décoration et le design. Il explore également la manière dont les nouveaux médias (Wikipedia tout d'abord, puis YouTube et Facebook) ont offert aux producteurs de cercueils un degré de visibilité qui les a, à leur tour, incités à développer des nouvelles stratégies de travail plus efficaces. En outre, l'expérience d'images numériques a profondément transformé le processus de production, de la modélisation créative à des techniques de reproduction. Ce phénomène récent a conduit à une transformation : les cercueils ne sont plus des objets funéraires, ils se sont convertis en véritables objets de design ; leurs producteurs ne sont plus des bûcherons, mais des artistes dans le sens le plus large, et, comme dans le cas d'Anang, ce sont également des acteurs, des artistes et des gestionnaires

La via delle bare

The Way of the Masks by Lévi-Strauss and the structuralist method, already tested for the analysis of kinship and myths, are at the center of this essay, whereby the book of the French Anthropologist is put to test with the abebu adekai, funerary objects of the Ga people of Ghana. Lévi-Strauss not only wondered whether it would be possible to apply the structuralist method to the “plastic art object”, but he prophetically observed that art is no useless epiphenomenon, but on the contrary an extraordinary source to comprehend aspects of politics, economy and society of which it is part. This article, beside investigating the issue of method in studying the funerary sarcophagi of the Ga, aims to highlight how beneficial and productive the legacy of Lévi-Strauss has been and will be in re-thinking the epistemological posture of the anthropologist in the various phases of the research, in order to better appreciate the work of art, in this case the funerary object, as a relational and systemic process in the context in which it is produced.Il metodo strutturalista, già sperimentato nell’analisi della parentela e dei miti, e la Via delle Maschere di Lévi-Strauss sono al centro del presente articolo; il celebre saggio dell’antropologo francese è qui testato sull’analisi delle sculture funerarie abebu adekai dei Ga del Ghana. Lévi-Strauss, oltre a chiedersi se non fosse possibile applicare il metodo strutturalista anche allo studio delle ‘opere plastiche’, aveva pioneristicamente osservato come l’arte fosse ben altro che un superfluo epifenomeno, e fosse invece una fonte straordinaria per comprendere aspetti della politica, dell’economia e della società in cui essa è inserita. Il saggio, oltre a riprendere ed approfondire la questione del metodo in rapporto ai sarcofagi funerari dei Ga, intende ragionare su quanto benefico e di assoluto giovamento possa essere il lascito di Lévi-Strauss nel ripensare in modo auto-riflessivo la postura epistemologica adottata dall’antropologa nelle diverse fasi della ricerca, al fine di comprendere l’opera, in questo caso l’oggetto funebre, quale processo relazionale e sistemico nel contesto in cui è inserito

Abebuu adekai chez les Ga du Ghana. Un regard anthropologique sur l’image

Constituant un leitmotiv de l’art contemporain africain, les « Abebuu adekai », terme qui signifie littéralement « récepteur de proverbes », sont connus dans le monde entier sous l’appellation de cercueils fantaisie. Devenus très prisés à l’étranger, où ils sont présentés dans des expositions internationales comme des œuvres relevant du ready-made, ces artefacts ont suscité un grand intérêt médiatique.   La vie de ces objets nous rappelle le procédé par lequel des objets passent d’un régime de valeur à un autre. Cela renvoie également à l’effet d’écho que produit ce transfert sur l’utilisation des cercueils de fantaisie chez les Ga, tout en démontrant les limites de la biographie des choses (Appadurai, Kopytoff, 1986). En mettant l’accent sur les pratiques de production, il est possible d’examiner des méthodes de création et de distribution de l’image chez les Ga. On ne se focalise non pas sur l’objet/artefact mais sur l’objet/image, ce qui attribue plus d’importance à des éléments de vision, de prestige, de mémoire et d’action. Ainsi, le produit final apparait comme le résultat d’une collaboration entre l’Adeka et les consommateurs (Baxandall, 1972).Abebuu adekai – literally, “receptacles of proverbs” are known worldwide as fantasy coffins – constitute a widespread leitmotif in contemporary African art. These artefacts have rapidly achieved popularity abroad by being presented as ready-made artworks in international exhibitions, and have consequently caught the interest of the mass media. The life of the object calls to mind the processes of translation, whereby objects move from one “regime of value” to another. It also calls to mind the echo effects that such movements bear on the use of fantasy coffins among the Ga people, and at the same time it reveals the limits of a biography of things (Appadurai, Kopytoff, 1986). The emphasis placed on observing the practices of production has made it possible to examine the methods in which the image is created and disseminated among the Ga people. Thus, the focus has been shifted from the object/artefact to the object/image, and more significance has been given to elements such as vision, prestige, memory, and action. In this way, the final product emerges as a joint process carried out by the adeka and its consumers (Baxandall, 1972). Nous tenons a remercier Fanny Wonu Veys et Carine Ayélé Durand pour leurs commentaires et suggestions

Restituzioni situate come costante comunicativa della ricerca nei contesti dell’educazione.

Il saggio ripercorre alcuni momenti salienti del processo di restituzione di una ricerca applicata commissionata dal Comune di Scandicci (FI) a sostegno dello strumento di governance delle attività educative da esso promosse, in collaborazione con le Istituzioni Scolastiche di Primo e di Secondo Ciclo del territorio. In questa riflessione ci si diffonde sui termini secondo cui la restituzione ha coinvolto il territorio scolastico e quello più ampio della cittadinanza, evidenziando non solo opportunità e criticità dell’intero processo ma anche modi, tempi e strumenti di essa. Si tratta di un processo per nulla ovvio in cui la restituzione non è soltanto un ritorno dell’esperienza ai partecipanti o una ricezione di un testo da parte del pubblico più ampio. Piuttosto, essa diviene un “rendere conto,” continuo e condiviso in un processo dialogico e situato, esso stesso terreno di indagine, luogo di riflessività e apprendimento, in relazione all’esercizio e all’applicazione della ricerca stessa.This essay traces some noteworthy moments of the restitution process of an applied research project commissioned by the Municipality of Scandicci (FI) in support of the governance tool of the educational activities it promotes, in collaboration with the territory’s First and Second Cycle School Institutions. It reflects on the ways in which restitution has involved the schools and the wider citizenry, highlighting not only opportunities and criticalities of the process itself, but also its application, timing and methods. This is by no means an obvious process, but one in which restitution is not merely a return of the participants’ experience or the reception of a prescribed text by the wider public. Rather, it becomes a continuous, shared “account” in a dialogic, situated process, itself deserving inquiry, a place for reflection and learning in relation to the scope and application of the research itself

Unveiling the folding mechanism of the bromodomains

Bromodomains (BRDs) are small protein domains often present in large multidomain proteins involved in transcriptional regulation in eukaryotic cells. They currently represent valuable targets for the development of inhibitors of aberrant transcriptional processes in a variety of human diseases. Here we report urea-induced equilibrium unfolding experiments monitored by circular dichroism (CD) and fluorescence on two structurally similar BRDs: BRD2(2) and BRD4(1), showing that BRD4(1) is more stable than BRD2(2). Moreover, we report a description of their kinetic folding mechanism, as obtained by careful analysis of stopped-flow and temperature-jump data. The presence of a high energy intermediate for both proteins, suggested by the non-linear dependence of the folding rate on denaturant concentration in the millisec time regime, has been experimentally observed by temperature-jump experiments. Quantitative global analysis of all the rate constants obtained over a wide range of urea concentrations, allowed us to propose a common, three-state, folding mechanism for these two BRDs. Interestingly, the intermediate of BRD4(1) appears to be more stable and structurally native-like than that populated by BRD2(2). Our results underscore the role played by structural topology and sequence in determining and tuning the folding mechanism

Sfide e potenzialità dei metodi collaborativi nella ricerca applicata ai contesti educativi multiculturali = Challenges and opportunities of collaborative research applied to multicultural educational contexts

Sul solco delle sfide attuali poste ai contesti educativi multiculturali e ai mondi della ricerca, il contributo riflette sulle potenzialità dei metodi collaborativi nella ricerca applicata in questi ambit

Development of a Desmocollin-3 Active Mouse Model Recapitulating Human Atypical Pemphigus

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a life-threatening mucocutaneous autoimmune blistering disease. It is often associated with autoantibodies to the desmosomal adhesion proteins Desmoglein 3 (DSG3) and Desmoglein 1 (DSG1). Recently, auto-antigens, such as desmocollins and others have been described in PV and in atypical pemphigus forms such as Pemphigus Herpetiformis (PH), Pemphigus Vegetans (PVeg), and Paraneoplastic Pemphigus (PP). Desmocollins belong to a cadherin subfamily that provides structure to the desmosomes and play an important role in cell-to-cell adhesion. In order to verify the pathogenic activity of anti-Desmocollin 3 (DSC3) antibodies, we developed an active disease model of pemphigus expressing anti-DSC3 autoantibodies or antiDSC3 and anti-DSG3 antibodies. This approach included the adoptive transfer of DSC3 and/or DSG3 lymphocytes to Rag2(-/-) immunodeficient mice that express DSC3 and DSG3. Our results show that the presence of anti-DSC3 auto-antibodies is sufficient to determine the appearance of a pathological phenotype relatable to pemphigus, but with features not completely super-imposable to those observed in the DSG3 active model, suggesting that the DSC3 active model might mimic the atypical pemphigus. Moreover, the presence of both anti-DSC3 and anti-DSG3 antibodies determines a more severe phenotype and a slower response to prednisolone. In conclusion, we have developed an adult DSC3 pemphigus mouse model that differs from the DSG3 model and supports the concept that antigens other than desmogleins may be responsible for different phenotypes in human pemphigus

ASC-exosomes ameliorate the disease progression in SOD1(G93A) murine model underlining their potential therapeutic use in human ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive degeneration of motoneurons. To date, there is no effective treatment available. Exosomes are extracellular vesicles that play important roles in intercellular communication, recapitulating the effect of origin cells. In this study, we tested the potential neuroprotective effect of exosomes isolated from adipose-derived stem cells (ASC-exosomes) on the in vivo model most widely used to study ALS, the human SOD1 gene with a G93A mutation (SOD1(G93A)) mouse. Moreover, we compared the effect of two different routes of exosomes administration, intravenous and intranasal. The effect of exosomes administration on disease progression was monitored by motor tests and analysis of lumbar motoneurons and glial cells, neuromuscular junction, and muscle. Our results demonstrated that repeated administration of ASC-exosomes improved the motor performance; protected lumbar motoneurons, the neuromuscular junction, and muscle; and decreased the glial cells activation in treated SOD1(G93A) mice. Moreover, exosomes have the ability to home to lesioned ALS regions of the animal brain. These data contribute by providing additional knowledge for the promising use of ASC-exosomes as a therapy in human ALS

Extracellular vesicles from adipose mesenchymal stem cells target inflamed lymph nodes in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Background aims: Adipose mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) represent a promising therapeutic approach in inflammatory neurological disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS). Recent lines of evidence indicate that most biological activities of ASCs are mediated by the delivery of soluble factors enclosed in extracellular vesicles (EVs). Indeed, we have previously demonstrated that small EVs derived from ASCs (ASC-EVs) ameliorate experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a murine model of MS. The precise mechanisms and molecular/cellular target of EVs during EAE are still unknown. Methods: To investigate the homing of ASC-EVs, we intravenously injected small EVs loaded with ultra-small superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (USPIO) at disease onset in EAE-induced C57Bl/6J mice. Histochemical analysis and transmission electron microscopy were carried out 48 h after EV treatment. Moreover, to assess the cellular target of EVs, flow cytometry on cells extracted ex vivo from EAE mouse lymph nodes was performed. Results: Histochemical and ultrastructural analysis showed the presence of labeled EVs in lymph nodes but not in lungs and spinal cord of EAE injected mice. Moreover, we identified the cellular target of EVs in EAE lymph nodes by flow cytometry: ASC-EVs were preferentially located in macrophages, with a consistent amount also noted in dendritic cells and CD4+ T lymphocytes. Conclusions: This represents the first direct evidence of the privileged localization of ASC-EVs in draining lymph nodes of EAE after systemic injection. These data provide prominent information on the distribution, uptake and retention of ASC-EVs, which may help in the development of EV-based therapy in MS