Life is a Carnival

Carnivals, costumes and masks were invented that so we could forget reality for a few days, so that we could forget the role each of us plays in that reality called everyday life, to be able to become another person, in the proper way. That's why bearded hetero young men dress up as sexy blondes or flight attendants. That's why family men and office clerks, who are never late to work, cover their faces with masks of the opposite sex, of other races, of inhabitants of other galaxies. For a few hours, a few days, anything goes, and you can be something different, another person with another lifestyle. It's carnival time. When it's over we'll go back to being ourselves, once again our same old selves. And yet, is it really true? The mask has sometimes become our own face. Our skin is the disguise that hides us. Gillian Wearing says that we are reflected in our masks, that they say everything about us. Perhaps we are condemned to not being able to hide.

The masquerade is a festival where the participants wear masks and costumes. That's what the dictionaries say. And then they add that a masquerade is a trap, a deceit. I can't think of a better definition for life. A trap, a deceit, a party where we are all disguised as others, where we all want to look like something we are not, maybe not even what we would like to be, but certainly others who are not entirely us. Masquerades originated in 15th century Italian courtly balls and flourished throughout Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries. They get their name from the use of very elaborate masks that cover participants' faces. Their derivations among commoners were carnivals and parades with floats and dances. Music, dance, very elaborate costumes and floats and architectural sets built expressly for the occasion, an entire theatrical setting for building a spectacle around costume, concealment, fixed-term deceit. 

Editorial: 
Life is a Carnival. Rosa Olivares

Texts:
Gazing Strategies. Luis Francisco Pérez
Interview with Cabello / Carceller. Semíramis González

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