The Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography is hosting, for the first time in Cluj-Napoca, the largest and most comprehensive collection of African masks in Romania.
The exhibition “Masks of Power. African Art from the Alin Samochiș Collection,” exhibited at the Reduta Palace of the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography, features 230 pieces—a remarkable selection—including 130 African masks from Alin Samochiș’s collection, the result of over three decades of travel in search of authentic cultural expressions. Their provenance includes both direct acquisitions from Africa and access to major international collections and auctions.
The masks come from a vast area of sub-Saharan Africa, from West Africa to Central and East Africa and the Indian Ocean region, illustrating a remarkable typological and stylistic diversity.
Some pieces are over a century and a half old, bearing the marks of time and use.
In a world dominated by aesthetic uniformity, the choice becomes an essential one: objects created not for the market, but for living communities, where form is inseparable from function and meaning.
Formed over time, the collection marks a clear transition from an interest in European decorative art to the adoption of a distinct direction: traditional African art.
The exhibition is not just about looking, but also about understanding an art in which aesthetics and function are inseparable, and forms live through the beliefs that give them.
“Beyond their aesthetic value, these objects serve as active instruments within complex ritual contexts: agricultural, funerary, initiatory, or therapeutic. They mediate the relationship between the visible and invisible worlds, invoke spirits, protect communities, and support processes of transformation. The mask is not an inert object: it is a presence.
The selection reflects a rigorous criterion: avoiding pieces produced for commercial consumption and focusing on authentic objects, marked by use and their original context. At the same time, the exhibition offers a perspective on the role of African art in the history of universal art. Its influence on European modernism is well known, having been integrated into the language of artists such as Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso.” (Alin Samochis, collector)
The opening of the exhibition “Masks of Power. African Art from the Alin Samochis Collection” will take place on April 23, at 5:00 p.m., at the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography, 21 Memorandum Street.
Guests: Assoc. Prof. Septimiu Jugrestan, Ph.D., sculptor, president of the UAD Senate; Dr. Rodica Marian, linguist, member of the Romanian Writers’ Union; and Diane Roman Inamahoro, vice president of the African Partnership Group.
The exhibition is open from April 23 to May 31, 2026, Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
