Given their complexity, it might be reductive to try to encapsulate them within a single discourse, and this poses the problem of how we should view these objects. Knowledge about them exists, developed by the communities that created them, which inscribe the masks as objects of movement. They are made for dancing and should be observed with the music and songs that accompany their appearance, in the context of a ritual.

Primarily from sub-Saharan Africa, the selection of these masks in the museum does not observe a scientific rationale, as would be appropriate for an anthropology museum. Instead it reflects José de Guimarães’ personal and artistic criteria who, as an artist-collector, acquired these sets of masks in the European market from the 1980s onwards. He explains that: “each artisan who has produced these masks is an artist with whom I'm interested in forging a dialogue”.

One of the CIAJG's missions is to investigate its own collections, in the belief that knowledge about the respective items must be woven into a set of historical and political relationships, and connections between knowledge without any hierarchy. In this way, it will be possible to critically look at this legacy and diversify the narratives of certain stories with others.