Statues Also Breathe
A collaborative project between the Department of Fine and Applied Arts of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and Prune Nourry.
Statues Also Breathe at Art Twenty One
Now on view
MACAAL — Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden
Marrakech · February 2026 →
Marrakech · February 2026 →
Genesis
At the time of the abduction, Nourry was taking the Terracotta Daughters — her army of 108 Chinese girls, sculpted in the tradition of the Xi'an clay warriors, a hybrid embodiment of girls unborn due to birth selection in China — around the world (Shanghai, Paris, New York, Mexico City).It is then that she decided to initiate the collaborative project of a new army for the girls of Chibok. Statues Also Breathe is in the vein of her previous projects, which explore scientific aberrations and human selection (Procreative Dinners, 2009–2013) or gender imbalances (Holy Daughters, 2010–2013; Terracotta Daughters, 2012–2030). Prune Nourry set out to shed light on the "missing" girls of Nigeria: 276 girls from the Chibok region, kidnapped from their high school in 2014 by Boko Haram Islamist fighters, to be married by force. Today, 108 of these girls, the "Chibok girls," are still missing.
Description
Statues Also Breathe is a major collaboration between the Department of Fine & Applied Arts of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, 108 students from all across Nigeria, and the families of the Chibok girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria in 2014.Inspired by the iconic terracotta heads of Ife, this collaboration was initiated by artists Prune Nourry and Adé Bantu. It seeks both to raise awareness about the plight of the girls who are still missing and to remind the world of the wealth and diversity of Nigeria's history and culture, as well as the challenges that we collectively face as a global community.
After meeting the families of Chibok to conceive the project, Nourry and Bantu were entrusted with portraits of their missing daughters, which Nourry, a trained sculptor, used as inspiration for eight heads sculpted in clay — portraits of the high school girls in the style of the iconic 15th-century Ife heads. From plaster molds of these eight original sculptures, 108 heads were cast in clay sourced from Ile-Ife by a community of women potters from the Yoruba town of Ilorin, together with students of Obafemi Awolowo University.
On September 30, 2022, a day-long workshop was held at the university. 108 students sculpted and transformed each head into unique sculptures using photographs of the missing girls. A delegation of mothers of the Chibok girls, along with girls who managed to escape Boko Haram captivity, was in attendance, honoring and recognizing the friends and loved ones depicted in the sculptures.
A documentary features the sculptures and the making of Statues Also Breathe, allowing all collaborators to share their voices and unique perspectives — whether teachers, students, or parents of the missing girls. Each element of Statues Also Breathe works to sustain global attention on the girls' plight.
This "army of girls" is indivisible and must remain together as a complete artwork. All 108 heads were signed by the students and were first exhibited in Lagos before traveling internationally. To support this project and amplify its impact, Nourry and Claude Grunitzky established the Catharsis Arts Foundation. Upon completion of the tour, the army will return to the continent to enter the permanent collection of a museum.
Inspiration
Ife heads from Ita Yemoo, Ife Museum and from Inwinrin grove, Nigerian National Museum, Lagos, 12th–15th centuries © All rights reserved
The artistic tradition of Ife, the ancient religious capital of Nigeria, famous for its 15th-century terracotta and bronze heads, is one of the major inspirations for this project.
It draws not only on the uniqueness and virtuosity of the sculptural practice of the ancient Yoruba city, but also on the spiritual aspects of its culture — a project that gives a renewed face to the disappeared, an extension of the portraits of the past and a new present. In Yoruba belief, the head is the home of the Ori, the seat of the soul and the place where a person's fate is determined.
According to the legend of the Yoruba people, Ile-Ife is the place where the deity Obàtálá created the first humans, using clay. For the Statues Also Breathe project, the clay used to make the sculptures comes from the same place as that used in the 15th century to shape the famous ancient heads.
Research into materials and their properties is a fundamental part of Prune Nourry's work, as is her involvement with diverse craftspeople. A sculptor by training, material culture is at the heart of her work.
Collaboration
For Statues Also Breathe, Prune Nourry and Adé Bantu first approached the association of the parents of the kidnapped girls to outline the framework of the project, and then the Department of Fine and Applied Arts of Obafemi Awolowo University of Ile-Ife, distinguished by its strong cross-disciplinary approach including anthropology and science, and which possesses the largest collection of Ife's rich sculpture heritage. The families entrusted them with the portraits of their missing daughters to be portrayed by each sculpture.
Researchers, historians, and 108 students — from Ile-Ife and all over the country — joined the adventure, documented by a film crew.
The preparation of the clay and the casting of the preliminary heads was done by a group of young female potters from Ilorin, Kwara State, and students from the Department of Fine and Applied Arts. Introducing the girls to the Ilorin potters and to the casting process is, in itself, a form of empowerment. Before contact with the workshop, they had never worked as sculptors before, nor experimented with casting using plaster molds. In a way, this contributes to girls' education and empowerment. Meanwhile, the exercise is a revalidation of Obafemi Awolowo University's "town and gown" concept, rooted in the cultural aspect of the university motto: "For learning and culture."
Creation
The eight original heads sculpted in clay by Nourry. Top: Lugwa, Hauwa J., Amsatu, Mary; bottom: Aicha, Hauwa N., Margret, Yama
From photographs given by the families of the missing girls, between May and July 2022, Prune Nourry modeled eight portraits in clay, recreating the faces of the school girls in the style of the ancestral heads of Ile-Ife. From these clay heads, eight molds were made in plaster. After building a new workshop at Obafemi Awolowo University, a casting session was held in early September, coordinated by the artist and teacher Dr. Michael Olusegun Fajuyigbe.
From the eight molds, female artisans from Ilorin, assisted by volunteer students, cast 108 heads in Ile-Ife clay. The clay was dug from the same area used centuries ago to make the ancient heads. These 108 heads became the foundation for the one-day workshop.
Prune Nourry sculpting the heads
Workshop
On Friday September 30, 2022, 108 students from Obafemi Awolowo University and from all over the country (including Ile-Ife, Lagos, Benin City, Osogbu, and Cross River), who responded to the call for participation launched in the summer of 2022, worked on the 108 clay bases. Accompanied by their teachers and Prune Nourry, these artists-in-training worked to make each face unique, and each signed or marked their version. The army of missing girls took shape as a single, indivisible work. The workshop was accompanied by a delegation of mothers of the missing girls and some of the girls who had returned from captivity. As they walked through the installation, they all recognized their friends and relatives.
Workshop held at Obafemi Awolowo University © Dohdohndawa Photography/DDD Studios