Playing New Roles Behind the Mask: San Luis Potosi Diary # 2

This isn’t just CosPlay.

These are the origins of the Universe, the notion of duality, the personification of diety, the reverence for the useless, the mourning of reduction, and the paralyzing worry of the satan. These weighty themes and other people have on a regular basis been resolved as a result of masks, costumes, and dance in rituals courting back again to 3000 B.C. in Mexico.  Through the Pre-Hispanic time period, folks grew to become gods and devils, eagles and jaguars – by donning masks. 

Wearing a mask in ritual or celebration, one particular could believe powers around the harvest, affect relationships, endeavor to sway well being outcomes and even forecast the future. Later on, pagan methods had been folded into western religious procedures to get new adherents (and donations) to the church, fortifying their significance in the histories re-told to long run generations.

The masks we saw this week at the Nationwide Museum of the Masks (Museo Nacional de la Máscara) in San Luis Potosi have been formidable, frightening, and intriguing – and you are confirmed that there is hardly ever a dull minute as you stroll from area to space. The mechanics of artifice and creativity summon some of the strongest thoughts and associations potentially mainly because of their human scale. Whether designed for “Las Mascaradas” or in later generations at “El Carnaval” just one realizes that sophistication and talent can be unveiled in the most intricate pieces with important components and those of the roughest minimize or bluntest application of coloration.

Housed in a colonial palace in the attractive historical centre of the town that was declared a Earth Heritage Web site by UNESCO in 2010, astonishingly this museum presentation seems to have missing texts, holes the place things at the time were being, and darkened lights – detracting from the grand history of masks in basic, and Mexico’s position in unique. A ultimate part focused to masks worn by wrestling performers recognized as luchadores is a skipped chance to hook up the historic with the modern and fork out homage to the impressive impression and importance these masks have had in a number of media and on present day imaginations.

General the masks and costumes are exceptionally remarkable, drawn from areas and tongues throughout the region and centuries. Observing these masks in this grand previous dwelling gives visitors a better appreciation for the purpose artists have played in communicating the sacred and profane, the rituals of celebration and mourning, the generation of drama and myth, and the creation of traditions.

For far more information and facts about The Museo Nacional de la Mascara, click on Here.

See Mexican Street Artist SANER, whose function is significantly affected by the mask making/donning traditions of Mexico: