In Western imagination, they are nothing but ferocious head-hunters who exhibit macabre trophies. But reality is, as always, different. Dayak people are also artists of great charm and mystery, and through their works they manifest the relationship between men, gods and natural phenomena of one of the last unknown lands on the planet.

The exhibition is the result of multi-year research conducted by MUSEC, in collaboration with international scientific partners. This is one of the largest exhibitions in the world ever made on this subject and certainly the largest in the last forty-five years. The exhibition goes with an illustrated book by Paolo Maiullari (Arte dayak, Culture Arts & Books, Lugano 2019, 296 p.). Together they are the highest achievement of the study, valorisation and growth of MUSEC’s Borneo’s art collections; the project was started by the MUSEC fifteen years ago and led to the production of exhibitions and books, as well as cultural diplomacy actions in synergy with the Indonesian authorities.

The 170 works exhibited were produced for the most part between the beginning of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century and come from the MUSEC, from four other Swiss ethnological museums and from Swiss and European private collections. They are representative of the major dayak art genres well known in the West: monumental wooden sculptures, masks, hunting magic sticks, paddles, shields and traditional weapons, fabrics, body ornaments, garments, skulls, tattoo matrices, baby-carriers, architectural elements, musical instruments, jars; basketry and other decorated objects.