From Carnival to Circus, the metamorphosis fair

Parades of allegorical floats and parades of figures dressed in feathers and sequins while the fever rises, fueled by the frenzy of dance, the desire to forget and perhaps to transform thanks to the cheerfulness and light-heartedness that swallows the soul of the protagonists and spectators. It happens every year at the Rio de Janeiro Carnival (In 2022 from 20 to 30 April). It may seem like the fair of mediatized superficiality, but it has deeper roots, underlines Felipe Ferreira who edited with Delphine Pinasa, the book dedicated to the Rio Carnival. Published by Silvana Editoriale, it is a corollary to the exhibition of the Center national du costume de scène in Moulin until April 30th. Who. The review is dedicated to the costumes of the Rio Carnival and to the history of the most popular event in the world attended, in 2019, by six million spectators. The museum also exhibits the permanent collection dedicated to the famous dancer Rudolph Nureyev

Carnival exorcising evil
The festival originates from the sacred and profane rural rituals including the Egyptian processions in honor of Api, the god of fertility, or from the saturnalia, bacchanalia of the Greek-Roman civilization. Catholicism, however, gave the decisive impetus when, in the Middle Ages, it imposed Lent, dedicated to spirituality and fasting. In the days preceding it, in view of abstinence, popular festivals and sumptuous banquets were therefore organized, reviving even the ancient celebrations and temporarily suspending moral and social obligations with jokes, disguises, wild parties, follies. But also the hunt for the villain, often represented by a straw puppet to be condemned to the stake to exorcise the evil of hunger, persecution and wars and then, perhaps, go and get drunk under the greasy tree. As the catalog points out, it was the emerging French bourgeoisie, in the 19th century, who transformed the Carnival into a party that culminated in the Grand Ball with extravagant and luxurious costumes and in the carriage “promenades” while the popular carnival paraded the Fat Ox.

From Paris to the Sambodromo
The parades in Paris inspire those of Rio de Janeiro after the independence from Portugal in 1822. The Carnival, already introduced in its most rudimentary form by the colonizers, began to be inspired by the bourgeois model of the French carnival. Carnival societies are born to organize elegant parades through the streets of Rio. The evolution of customs and music takes on increasingly identifiable connotations with the indigenous universe and the roll of the drums mixes with the melodies of popular guitars. Then the advent of samba and its schools which, between the thirties and fifties, imposed new originality on the party. The competition becomes for many a reason for living and a world attraction. Since 1984 the party has been concentrated at the Sambodromo, designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Sumptuous and picturesque floats parade for the show developed by hundreds of artisans, sculptors, costume designers, choreographers, masters of lights, music and dance, make-up artists and tailors chorally engaged in the exaltation of the best spirit of the country, the joy of living .

The book tells all this: the organization, the protagonists, the samba schools, the conception of the allegories on the floats that interprets the expectations of the public, but above all of the people of Rio and the surrounding region. Many pages are dedicated to the most important actors, authors, artists and craftsmen of this universe created in the name of transgression. Goethe is quoted when he writes “Carnival is not a party that is given to the people, but that the people give themselves”.

Masks and masks
One chapter thinks about the metamorphosis of the self through disguise and mask: the possibility of hiding and transforming oneself, of playing and indulging fear, transgression without fear of the judgment of others or to welcome appreciation for the originality of the make-up, which, as such, has little consistency.

Carnival gives the opportunity to expand this emotion which also has sociological and even political connotations. Circumstances that concern us since we wore anticovid masks experiencing their positive and negative implications.

Circus and acrobats
The exhibition of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen is also dedicated to the theme of disguise and spectacularity until May 17, accompanied by the catalog published by Silvana «Cirque et saltimbanques». Who

On display is an important private collection, the JY et G. Borg which includes posters, drawings, paintings and sculptures by famous artists. There is no shortage of costumes and objects used during the shows. Here too, as in the Carnival, it is the play of emotions and also the skill of the athletic artists to mark the rhythm of a fascinating art that has always stimulated the imagination of adults and children.

Its main feature (except in cases where the shows took place in fixed structures) is to bring the show under the people’s house, in a continuous, complex coming and going through the streets of the world that was preceded by bands and parades of jugglers, acrobats, clowns and animals (the circus was born as an equestrian show). It was like a preview of the show together with all the maneuvers necessary to hoist the colored awnings and complete the logistics.

A world that never stands still
And this is perhaps the least known part, the “behind the scenes” of the life of apparently fragile beings, but organized by precise rules and determined to defend their freedom, capable of indulging society’s desire to escape “, inhabitants of a world on the edge that never stands still.

Not only because it travels many kilometers, but also for the creativity in inventing and perfecting sleight of hand, acrobatic choreography and entertaining performances. Scenarios and numbers in which animals never seen before were involved (elephants, kangaroos, tigers, etc.) and considered dangerous. The collection includes documents from some circuses: from the most modest to the most striking ones such as Barnum and Bailey: Buffalo Bill who toured Europe with his acrobatic show; the Medrano circus, an avant-garde gymnasium and the Japanese circus.