TSANTSA NOVA
Four sculptural artefacts, assembled from coconut, pigment and ritual matter.
Project Statement
TSANTSA NOVA is not a revival of colonial trophies but an artistic re-coding of the historical shrunken head (tsantsa). The four artefacts are built from coconut, layered with pigments, resins, lacquers and occult substances applied in sequences derived from ritual practice and alchemical procedure – not as metaphor, but as method. What results are objects whose surfaces record the history of their own making.
CAPUT INFERNI – THE TREASURE KEEPER, 2025
Medium: Sculptural artefact (assemblage) with accompanying video
Film: Digital video (MP4, H.264), color, audio (AAC stereo, 44.1 kHz), 26.93 s, 9:16, 30 fps, loop-ready
Native resolution: 720 × 1280 px
Artwork ID: RL/O-25-119-1/4
TSANTSA NOVA, 2025
TSANTSA NOVA engages with the historical shrunken head (tsantsa) as a colonial symbol of power. Taking as its starting point its original function as war trophy and spiritual container among the Shuar (Jivaroan peoples) in the Amazon region, the series transforms the object into a contemporary artefact.
The four artefacts share a common technical vocabulary – coconut as carrier form, pigment, resin and lacquer as surface, occult substances as charge – but diverge in their inner orientation: possession, pact, reflection and voice. Each axis assigns its object a distinct material logic, named below.
Nobody mistakes coconut and resin for a war trophy from the Amazon. The more interesting question is what each object still does to someone standing in front of it — held shut by an industrial chip, suspended on a gold-coloured thread, sealed behind polished resin — once the historical referent has been acknowledged as absent.
CAPUT INFERNI – THE TREASURE KEEPER
Axis: Possession
SKU: RL/O-25-119-1/4
Warranty ID: H25333
Caput Inferni renders possession as metaphysical substance. Saturn and Mars structure a glowing surface of pigments, lacquers and metallic glimmer. Suspended on a gold-coloured thread, the object oscillates between gravity and spell. The rune Fehu marks the transition from material to immaterial value.
CAPUT INFERNI – THE TREASURE KEEPER
Availability: mail@robertlanz.com
CAPUT CONTRACTUS – THE PACT HEAD
Axis: Pact
SKU: RL/O-25-119-2/4
Warranty ID: H25332
Caput Contractus visualises the sealed pact. An industrial chip closes the mouth and renders visible what usually remains hidden: agreements inscribed into bodies. Mercury, air and the rune Ansuz position language as infrastructure. The artefact appears as a threshold object that is not signed but endured.
CAPUT CONTRACTUS – THE PACT HEAD
Availability: mail@robertlanz.com
CAPUT MYSTERII – THE MIRROR
Axis: Reflection
SKU: RL/O-25-119-3/4
Warranty ID: H25331
Caput Mysterii operates as membrane, not as passage. Polished coconut, glass pigments and resins fold inside and outside into one. The surface stores light and returns it only in controlled reflections. The Latin phrase per speculum in aenigmate — through a glass, darkly — clarifies the refusal of immediate access.
CAPUT MYSTERII – THE MIRROR
Availability: mail@robertlanz.com
CAPUT VOCIS – THE CONJURER
Axis: Voice
SKU: RL/O-25-119-4/4
Warranty ID: H25334
Caput Vocis embodies the voice without a body. Lapis lazuli, star anise and mandrake align with Jupiter and the Tarot card The Hierophant, charging the threshold through which only the echo passes.
CAPUT VOCIS – THE CONJURER
Availability: mail@robertlanz.com
CLOSING
The four axes don’t resolve into one message — possession, pact, reflection and voice pull the series in different directions rather than illustrating the same idea four times. What holds them together is procedural, not thematic: the historical tsantsa lost its origin the moment it entered colonial trade and museum collections, catalogued as specimen rather than named as object. Each artefact in this series carries the opposite information — material list, sequence of production, warranty ID, item number. Where the original was anonymised, these are traceable. That is the re-coding: not a new myth, but documentation standing where concealment used to be.
Object Structure
Each artefact is conceived as a suspended sculptural body. The works are head-like, yet not anatomically fixed. Organic carrier forms are opened, sealed, coated, pierced, charged and reassembled through layers of pigments, resins, metal elements, textile fragments, scent, mineral substances and ritual materials.
Their interiors contain mixtures of powdered, vegetal and mineral components. The exact composition is documented, but remains physically invisible. The surfaces show traces of tension, compression and controlled material transformation.
TSANTSA NOVA, 2025
Oil, ink, tar, pigments, metal pigments, plastics, stainless steel, stainless steel wool, silver, lacquer, hot glue, silk, cotton, wool, animal fur, essential oils, decorative cosmetics, perfume (Christian Dior “Noir”), glass, semi-precious stones, dammar resin, incense, sage, leather, satin, fire-treated elements, stiff veil, hairnet, plastic coin with pink cross, nose ring, screws with gemstone appliqués and chains, silver-colored coins, black velvet collar, yellow feathers, heavy gemstone necklace, small gold-colored bell, silver-colored spider pendant, red Saturn ribbon, black feather, felted wool thread, pins with bead heads, mother-of-pearl shell, turquoise satin flower, silver-colored star pendant
¹ Dior is a registered trademark of Christian Dior Couture S.A. The name is used solely for descriptive purposes in connection with the material specifications. There is no cooperation or connection.
Edition of Four Unique Objects
Artwork ID´s:
Caput Inferni: RL/O-25-119-1/4, Warranty ID: H25333
Caput Contractus: RL/O-25-119-2/4, Warranty ID: H25332
Caput Mysterii: RL/O-25-119-3/4, Warranty ID: H25331
Caput Vocis: RL/O-25-119-4/4, Warranty ID: H25334
Variable dimensions
Contextual Note
TSANTSA NOVA constitutes an artistic engagement with the historically and culturally highly charged symbol of the shrunken head (tsantsa). Originally used by the Shuar and related Jivaroan peoples in the Amazon region of Ecuador and Peru as ritual war trophy, the tsantsa served to trap the vengeful spirit of the slain and thus functioned simultaneously as spiritual container and object of power. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the object was heavily commodified through colonial trade, musealised and largely stripped of its original ritual function.
The series does not reproduce or simulate any existing tsantsa, ceremonial object, or museum holding. Each artefact is an original assemblage, built from coconut and ritual material according to a logic the artist developed for this series alone. The re-coding lies in this distance: the work cites the historical form without replicating its content, and meets the colonial trade in such objects with the opposite of that trade’s concealment.
CAPUT VOCIS – THE CONJURER, 2025
Medium: Sculptural artefact (assemblage), accompanied by a video work
Film: Digital video (MP4), color, silent, 5 s, 9:16, 24 fps, loop-ready
Native resolution: 464 × 832 px
Artefact-Item-ID: RL/O-25-119-4/4
Warranty-ID: H25334
Acquisition
The four artefacts of the series TSANTSA NOVA are available as unique works and can be purchased directly.
During this period the works are available at a reduced price.