Tragicomica - Kunst aus Pappmaché

00:05:48:03 - 00:05:53:02

Unbekannt

Yeah, My name is Tobia.

00:05:53:04 - 00:06:26:22

Unbekannt

I'm part of the tragicomic are family and team tragicomic. I yes is one of the very last must making workshops stealing operation in Venice, if not the oldest. And yeah we're one of the very last to actually make traditional Venetian paper. My share masks from the beginning from scratch to the real. And we don't work only with masks because we have the other mask workshops.

00:06:26:22 - 00:06:59:00

Unbekannt

My we also have a nutshell year for historical and carnival costumes. We do workshops, activities, seminars on the history of Carnival and of masks. But of course they are masks. Is the is this the most important is our symbol? Let's say tragicomic. Art was founded because many people think of the masks as a very ancient, ancient tradition in Venice.

00:06:59:00 - 00:07:23:07

Unbekannt

And it actually is. It's true, but it's something that was has been retaken somewhat more recently because even when they say we're the old one of the oldest, it doesn't mean that we are centuries old, but it's just from the seventies, eighties of the last centuries, because Carnival in Venice, it's a big thing since the 13th century. So, yeah, it's very ancient.

00:07:23:07 - 00:08:15:24

Unbekannt

But when Napoleon came to the city in 1917 97, he completely abolished it, forbidden the use of masks. He abolished the celebration of Carnival, and for 200 years there was no carnival, no masks in Venice until the seventies, eighties of the last century. How was it to recover the knowledge of making masks, do you know? So yeah, I'm the younger generation, let's say, whereas tragicomic has been founded by my father, wealthier of the Lost, and he was actually part of the movement who tried to recover Carnival in those decades.

00:08:16:01 - 00:08:53:08

Unbekannt

Another very, very important figure was Mauricio Scapa in Rome, who was a scenography for director and artistic director, that in a bit he worked with the Biennale to go back to the sources, let's say, and re-enact the carnival at the beginning of the eighties and there was so my father would be the perfect person to ask this. But there was.

00:08:53:10 - 00:09:24:06

Unbekannt

I a contingency of events that made Carnival possible to recover some. One of that was a young group of young, not even mask makers, because at that time they were not must make maker. There were people who attended the Academy of Fine Arts or there were people who had a knowledge of some manual works, for example, the gold leaf or the working of wood or iron actors, acrobats.

00:09:24:09 - 00:10:01:18

Unbekannt

So people could have, yeah, have some manual skills or that had an artistic printing education that got together and somehow went back to some historical sources. Another important figure was the Easter Yoga for the Rialto was one of the first who went more to the historiographical part of of the ancient carnival and this young group of people who started making masks again, looking a bit on the let's see recipes.

00:10:01:20 - 00:10:50:02

Unbekannt

People in the 18th century used to do masks. They tried. And also he was a trial and error process, you see. Okay. It was an experiment. An experiment until process. It was I would say it was they didn't got their knowledge from books or data or historical sources, let's say. So it was not really books. It was to go to some sources, ancient sources in which maybe they mentioned a bit how they built masks in the 18th century and tried to do something similar, try to improve it, because the way we do papier maché masks nowadays is it's a bit more it's a bit different than how it was in the 18th century.

00:10:50:02 - 00:11:19:15

Unbekannt

It's a bit clearer. It's more divided into clear steps, whereas back then it was not. It was up to up to the moment. So some people used just paper, some it was a mixture of fabrics, plaster paper. It was not a clear process as it is nowadays. So of course it has been reinterpreted and put up to date to to nowadays needs and requests.

00:11:19:17 - 00:12:02:07

Unbekannt

There are a lot of different masks at the moment via in your workshop where you build your the masks and there are various types of different masks. Are there some source forms? Because here we have modern, more modern, are there masks of which are built in origin? We there are for sure some historical shapes and for those we can look at paintings folks, that Pietro Longhi is a good source.

00:12:02:07 - 00:12:36:04

Unbekannt

He was a painter that depicted the everyday life of Venetians in the 18th century and examples of these are the biota or the lava mask, the moray to mask the doctor of the plague. You know, in a way. And the citizen's mask, which is the neutral, full face shape. And for this we have sources and paintings and texts we can take inspiration from.

00:12:36:06 - 00:13:05:06

Unbekannt

And then there are many other shapes which is just from imagination, from thinking, from more modern characters is from requests. Also, because it's not that we are always closed in our workshop. It's very nice, the interaction, you know, with people and with with customers as well. When they have a specific request, we do a new model. And so there it is.

00:13:05:06 - 00:13:42:22

Unbekannt

Another new model or the new model is an inspiration. The request is an inspiration for a new model to to create. So you do your own designs? Yeah, of course. Is there education to learn how to do the masks? No. Standard standards. Standard designs. So you have your assistant here who is painting masks? Yes. So how it comes or is is that in Germany for each work you do, you have to go to school and learn there how to do the craft.

00:13:42:24 - 00:14:17:13

Unbekannt

Yeah, there is no school for masks. But the good thing is that a mask is a combination of sculpture and painting. We can we can see that maybe later the process of how it's made roughly. But first of all, it's a sculpture and then it's a manual process of the paper machine, then the painting part. So it's if a person has some grounding, at least a ground based knowledge of these two crafts is a good starting point to be amongst makers.

00:14:17:13 - 00:14:49:24

Unbekannt

So people who attended the Artistic High School or the Academy of Fine Arts usually have a good preparation for that. However, it's also something that you will learn by doing a lot. So that was done more in the past maybe, but if you enter a workshop you can if you have the willingness and you know, the enthusiasm to learn something, you can you can learn.

00:14:50:01 - 00:15:25:21

Unbekannt

Okay, How is the workflow of making a mask? You said already, how does it works? You make a sculpture how with So yeah, we could see three main steps when you have to do a new model from scratch that doesn't exist yet. You have to do a clay sculpture and you have to study first a bit the anatomical proportions, do a sketch, a design of the model you want to do, and then create 3D positive sculpture in clay.

00:15:25:23 - 00:16:04:01

Unbekannt

When you are done, you pour liquid plaster on top of the sculpture and when it solidifies, you take off the sculpture from inside it and you get stuck with this negative mould. And once it's very dry, you can start working different layers of paper inside the moulds. We also use some specific papers like woollen paper made of wool and fibres, gauze, different type of glues, and when it dries you have you take these paper layers out of the mould and you get you get the skeleton.

00:16:04:04 - 00:16:31:06

Unbekannt

Let's say it's not a mask still, because we have to cut the edges, the eyes, the nostrils, and not even there. It's ready for decoration because we have to level up some imperfection with stucco covered with bologna, plaster powder, and rub it glue. And only at that time you have rough whites, a mask that you can start decorating on.

00:16:31:08 - 00:17:09:00

Unbekannt

And they're also you can really free your imagination of different decorations, gold leaf, decoupage, collage and very different techniques. Historical masks are quite simple if you want to, to be more historically faithful. So black whites browns prevail as colours with very simple decorations. Whereas in the in more contemporary, more modern models, decorations and colours got very, very popular.

00:17:09:02 - 00:17:39:21

Unbekannt

What do you think? What's important for a machine mask and why should a carnival list use one made of machine and not one which is available in it? Shop around when it's made of plastic. What's the unique thing of a machine mask? Well, with a paper maché mask, you know, it's only have a mask. You have unique creation because as it is being made by hand, every piece is unique.

00:17:39:23 - 00:18:10:01

Unbekannt

And you have kind of a work of art. it's, it's, it's, it's unique. It's person, it's purpose. So in a ball, it can be personified, it can be customised. There is a study also on the anatomical features, so it's probably more comfortable. It's made of papier maché, so it's better to stain contact with your skin rather than plastic.

00:18:10:03 - 00:18:45:05

Unbekannt

And there is much more variety than something done, you know, by by your machine. But last 80 days we had a lot of rain. And if you are breaking into the mask, it's become clumsy a bit. And it's it's there's a danger of defamation. Do you have a tip how to make a mask more enduring? Well, I think that this helps because it makes it even softer and more, more comfortable.

00:18:45:07 - 00:19:12:22

Unbekannt

So I think it's it's a good sign if you have to wait for some time. Papier maché masks are endurable. It's not like leather, of course, but there is this episode that it's really I really like. Drew has been, a comedy of art teacher from the U.S. that has bought many masks from us 20 years ago, all in papier maché.

00:19:12:24 - 00:19:45:09

Unbekannt

because he appreciates also how papier maché you can personalise colour, whereas with leather is much more difficult. And after 20 years he came back to Van is a teacher, so he's not only he uses this mask, all these students use their masks. So they're really, really used every year with different people, with students and pupils. And after ten years he came with only one mask that has been a bit damaged and that we we repaired and all the rest were fine.

00:19:45:11 - 00:20:14:06

Unbekannt

So that was really was kind of a pride for us that after so many years they were all fine. Apart from one, there has been a bit I've been slightly damaged, so there was good was good news for us even because majority of people, they are not theatre teachers, so majority of people they use them. Maybe once, twice a year and then they have it as a decoration.

00:20:14:06 - 00:20:55:06

Unbekannt

So they even much more well kept. Do I have to make some maintenance or nothing? Maybe if, if there's a part where I'm losing colour or paint, but usually not you, maybe you have to dust it every now and then. If it then depends on how it's how it's refinished by us. Because if it has been refinished with varnish and there is a scratch, you might add some varnish, but not all of them are finished with varnish, Some of them are finished with wax, some of them with the locker.

00:20:55:08 - 00:21:21:21

Unbekannt

So you should get in contact with home, made it and ask for advice specific for the mask you have or bring it to rest or it likes it. Yeah. The guy before when I go to the ferry each morning, not to the ferry to evaporate or I pass a shop value rent or yes, I can rent costumes.

00:21:21:23 - 00:21:48:01

Unbekannt

Could you explain more about the costumes, the history and how you are making them, and which kind of costumes? Yes. So what costumes? The main reason I would say is that because we conceived Mask not only as the mask for your face, but as a mask for the whole body. So here we are in the workshop for face masks, but we also have the body mask.

00:21:48:03 - 00:22:33:19

Unbekannt

And that's and this is where the costume coming in the play. And because masks are so connected to carnival and costumes are as well. So it's all part of of the same world, let's say, in from the eighties onwards, the Carnival of Venice has been so tightly associated with 18th century style of costumes because the 18th century was the period in which Carnival was the most excessive and famous was in lecture using in the history of the of the most serene Republic of Venice.

00:22:33:21 - 00:23:06:15

Unbekannt

And so yeah, it's it's a long time. We also have the ateliers of costumes. Many costumes have been made by my two grandmothers and my aunts as well. So it's more family broad work by my mother as well. And we have them for for rent, mostly for the carnival period. But not only and also for sale. I mean, if people if people want.

00:23:06:17 - 00:23:34:13

Unbekannt

So there are all very historically faithful, many of them and we also used a lot of very prestigious fabrics like the rubella ones, that is this Maison that does our research on historical fabrics. So it's a very good finishing of the disguise. But it's interesting that this is a modern thing because for us, when we do Carnival here, we dress up like the 18th century style.

00:23:34:13 - 00:24:01:11

Unbekannt

But back then those were the normal everyday clothes, right? So for them to dress up in Carnival they disguise was to wear de votre mask with the Denali, which was like a cape that covered your head, your neck, your shoulders, and the tricorn hat. So that was interesting because it was not to Carnival was not to dress up as someone, someone or something, but to cover your identity.

00:24:01:12 - 00:24:33:04

Unbekannt

You couldn't leave behind that. There was a woman, a man, there was a noble, there was a poor, a rich, a priest. So everyone became equal during the carnival time. Also, the government of Venice did a step back, let the population rule kind of rule themselves for the period of carnival, and it was really a way to be in incognito and express themself without any social constraints.

00:24:33:06 - 00:25:19:03

Unbekannt

Was this period not even longer than two days? It was much longer back then. It was six months scattered throughout the year. So that's why masks became so iconic of the Venetian Carnival. The mask is something it's an anthropological instrument that you can find in so many cultures, in so many places in the world. But one of the of the reasons why we got so connected to Venice is that it was such a long time in the year that Venetians and foreigners had wore or sometimes even had to wear a mask that we could say that half of the time when Venetian were masked in the 18th century.

00:25:19:05 - 00:26:06:04

Unbekannt

So it was a part of the everyday clothing, let's say Carnival is much older than 18th century us. Do you know the origins of Carnival? Maybe? Yes. It's not something clear and defined, didn't it? Didn't arrive one day out of the blue. It's a long transforming process that we could start detecting at the very early medieval times when there was the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the early medieval times where masks were used more for proprietary up or therapeutic rites.

00:26:06:06 - 00:26:46:09

Unbekannt

Very pagan indeed. The people's use used very kind of alveolar like masks connected to the changing of nature, connected to the underworld, and in order to hope for a better harvest. And there is no coincidence that carnival still in our days, is this period between the end of the winter and beginning of spring, and also considered that the Venetians, the calendar didn't start on the 1st of January as we are as we do now, but on the 1st of March.

00:26:46:11 - 00:27:07:15

Unbekannt

So 1st of March, beginning of spring Carnival day all coincided with a new beginning. Indeed, Carnival was a way to bury the past and start again, and it was a new starting half a year.

00:27:07:17 - 00:27:35:18

Unbekannt

During half a year, of course, the most simple then the most important days were the day that are still nowadays with the Mardi Gras. But it was much longer. It started after Christmas and it went well beyond the beginning of spring. You go back to costumes and masks you produce, you do what's first the mask or the costume.

00:27:35:20 - 00:28:13:07

Unbekannt

It's like the the hen and the egg for us, I would say the mask, because the mask is is the symbol is the symbol of of of all this carnival world. Let's see. It also has a much stronger anthropological meaning. I think this this way of hiding in order to reveal because many people associate the mask as a negative thing to wear a mask, it means to be negative, to be fake, to hide something.

00:28:13:09 - 00:28:49:17

Unbekannt

But in Venice, it's exactly the opposite to wear a mask is actually to to tell. To tell the truth would be like Oscar Wilde said, you know, give me a mask. And I will tell you the truth, was really was really in line with the Venetian concept of wearing a mask. Okay. We are sitting here in your workshop where you are making your masks and painting it, and you also have workshops for people who are interesting, who make his own mask to paint his own mask.

00:28:49:17 - 00:29:47:08

Unbekannt

Can you tell us something about that? How will I come into the pleasure to do my own mask? Yeah, it's something we've been doing since many years. It's a nice way to open up the workshop and spread also our knowledge on masks and this tradition, which is so Venetian. So we also organise workshop, mostly our decoration workshops in which people, family, couples, singles can come choose from a wide variety of white models or off models, and then start their own decoration with many colours, acrylics, puffy paint, and also they can add jewels and embroidery, stones, feathers and create very specific, tailored, unique mask they become.

00:29:47:09 - 00:30:19:03

Unbekannt

Yeah, kind of unique in the world in that sense. And it's something that people like a lot. And we also we also like to, to share this with, with people that usually don't have nothing to do with with this. It's also a way of many people say it's kind of cathartic, relaxing. It's a way of experiencing a new a new activity, a new approach to this instrument I like to call the mask.

00:30:19:05 - 00:30:42:04

Unbekannt

We also do. So this was decoration workshop. We also do mask making workshop, let's say, but in that case you will. You need to be much more time committed. As you probably understood, the process is very long and people should stay here around five days. So it might be a bit too much. But the decoration usually in one hour or 2 hours there, it's enough.

00:30:42:06 - 00:31:10:13

Unbekannt

Okay, So now we we talked a lot about how how to do a mask and how to make it what to proposes to use to mask. Some people, maybe put it on the wall who who is buying your masks and how do they use it for what are they use it for? For which propose? Yes. This is not not defined.

00:31:10:13 - 00:31:41:01

Unbekannt

There's not a defined answer because the purposes are very wide. We work with, of course, with tourists that want to have a mask for carnival or for have it as a decoration, as a design in their houses with Venetians, there are there are some Venetians that are really into carnival and that every here they they start well in advance to think about the the next carnival costume and they really ask for a new, completely new model.

00:31:41:03 - 00:32:15:02

Unbekannt

But we also work with theatres. We'd seen all gaffers with cinema. I mean, long ago my father did some maths for Eyes Wide Shot, for example, but also with performers was when the people need to wear for a long time. We don't do the clay sculpture as we said, but we use the real face as a sculpture and we poured the liquid plaster directly on the face so that you have the perfect mask for your specific features and then also for the music, for the music world.

00:32:15:02 - 00:32:32:06

Unbekannt

Like if you want to see one of our masks from Lady Gaga in the video Poker Face, the one she throws in the water, it comes from tragicomic. So it is very wide, from locals to tourists to stars.