La Bouche du Roi (artwork)

La Bouche du Roi (French - the mouth of the king) is an artwork by Romuald Hazoumé (born 1962), an artist from the Republic of Bénin, West Africa, for the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery.

It was produced between 1997 and 2005 and is named after a place, the Bouche du Roy in Benin from which African slaves were transported to the Caribbean and Americas.

In a wider context, it is primarily a warning against all kinds of human greed, exploitation and enslavement, both historical and contemporary.

It is made from a combination of materials, including petrol cans (inflated to hold more), spices, and audio and visual elements (e.g. a recitation of Yoruba, Mahi and Wémé names from beneath the masks, the terrible sounds of a slave ship, and a video of black market petrol-runners in modern Bénin).

304 ‘masks’ are made from these petrol cans, each with an open mouth, eyes and a nose, mirroring the Brookes images, yet gives back individuality and African cultures to the slaves by including tokens of African gods (Vodou or orisha) attached to each 'face'.