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

This isn’t just CosPlay.

These are the origins of the Universe, the idea of duality, the personification of diety, the reverence for the useless, the mourning of decline, and the paralyzing fear of the satan. These weighty themes and other people have frequently been resolved by means of masks, costumes, and dance in rituals courting back again to 3000 B.C. in Mexico.  During the Pre-Hispanic time period, persons grew to become gods and devils, eagles and jaguars – by donning masks. 

Sporting a mask in ritual or celebration, a person could think powers in excess of the harvest, affect associations, attempt to sway wellbeing results and even forecast the long run. Later on, pagan techniques ended up folded into western religious tactics to obtain new adherents (and donations) to the church, fortifying their value in the histories re-advised to long run generations.

The masks we noticed this 7 days at the Nationwide Museum of the Masks (Museo Nacional de la Máscara) in San Luis Potosi were being formidable, frightening, and interesting – and you are guaranteed that there is by no means a dull minute as you stroll from room to place. The mechanics of artifice and creativeness summon some of the strongest thoughts and associations most likely because of their human scale. Regardless of whether built for “Las Mascaradas” or in later hundreds of years at “El Carnaval” 1 realizes that sophistication and ability can be revealed in the most intricate items with valuable resources and all those of the roughest cut or bluntest software of color.

Housed in a colonial palace in the gorgeous historic center of the town that was declared a Globe Heritage Web-site by UNESCO in 2010, incredibly this museum presentation seems to have missing texts, holes where goods at the time had been, and darkened lights – detracting from the grand background of masks in normal, and Mexico’s function in individual. A remaining area committed to masks worn by wrestling performers regarded as luchadores is a skipped option to hook up the ancient with the modern and pay out homage to the strong effect and importance these masks have had in numerous media and on contemporary imaginations.

Overall the masks and costumes are extremely remarkable, drawn from areas and tongues throughout the country and generations. Observing these masks in this grand former household offers site visitors a greater appreciation for the role artists have played in speaking the sacred and profane, the rituals of celebration and mourning, the creation of drama and myth, and the generation of traditions.

For more info about The Museo Nacional de la Mascara, click on Below.

See Mexican Street Artist SANER, whose operate is significantly influenced by the mask creating/carrying traditions of Mexico: