Haitian Carnival masks – the Jacmel way (CANCELED EVENT)
Workshop
CANCELED EVENT
Due to the lack of registrations, we unfortunately have to, and reluctantly, cancel this event. We hope to be able to offer it again during the next edition of the Masq’alors festival! in 2025.
The Masq’alors team!
Training workshop organized in collaboration with the Conseil de la Culture de l’Estrie
Workshop details
This training workshop’s goal is to teach the technical knowledge of carnival mask making in Haiti, more particularly from the city of Jacmel, while allowing to discover its traditional role.
The artisanal practice of papier mâché that Maxo Lauture uses is especially linked to mask making for the famous tradition of the Jacmel Carnival, which just held its 31st yearly edition.
Participants will have the opportunity to draw inspiration from the country’s popular culture and create their own papier mâché mask according to the local technique.
The workshop includes:
- An introduction to Haitian carnival and its characters
- Mask creation: clay molding, papier mâché, gluing, demolding and painting
- Presentation of the masks created during the training
- Participation in the masked parade procession in the streets of the village
Coming out of the workshop you will have:
- Been initiated and sensitized to Haitian mask culture
- Acquired the technique of papier mâché through a piece inspired by Haitian art
- Experimented or perfected the work of the mask bearer
- Experimented or perfected the creation process of a masked character
- Acquired additional experience of public presentation
Workshop schedule
First weekend in Sherbrooke (salle Amédée-Beaudoin, Lennoxville)
Saturday May 27th, 2023 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday May 28th, 2023 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Second weekend in Saint-Camille
Saturday June 3rd, 2023 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday June 4th, 2023 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Sunday June 4th, 2023 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
About the trainer
International and multidisciplinary artist, Maxo Lauture was born in Jacmel, Haiti in 1973. He is a painter, visual artist, musician, composer. As bearers of ancestral tradition, his father (leaf doctor-natural medicine) and mother (healer) encouraged him to pursue his passion for percussion and visual arts. For many years, he produced works of art from recycled sheet metal and created masks for the Jacmel Carnival. He founded a cultural center for disadvantaged youth and a workshop-gallery cooperative for the young artists of his community. But in the country at that time, the risks of expressing and openly protesting his discontent were high, his life under threat he was forced into exile. After a few artistic years in Mexico and the USA, he arrived in Quebec in 2017. Since then, Maxo continues to paint and offer different artistic and cultural workshops. He has presented his work solo and collectively at numerous places in Montreal and the Eastern Townships. He is a member of the Reminiscences Artists (Réminiscence de Laval) and shares his approach in contribution to the life of his new community.
Sophie Germain was born on May 19th, 1968 in Verdun, Quebec. From a young age, she demonstrated an instinctual talent for drawing. She is a self-taught painter, guided by her imagination and spontaneity. At 19 years of age, she ventures into the Haitian countryside where she founded her family and a school. Originator of a school, community projects and a famous Rara festival (Haiti country folk marching band tradition) retire, she coordinates, and designs the decors and stage costumes. She implemented several cultural mediation projects and organized intercultural humanitarian trips in Haiti for more than 20 years. Her academic background is characterized by studies in visual art, art history and human science. Her visual artist career is punctuated by a few individual and collective exhibitions. In 2018, the first intensive creative period with her spouse Maxo Lauture took place, for their exhibition at the Musée International d’Art Naïf de Magog. She is a member of the Haitian Reminiscences Artists. Her intention is to reflect the universal energy of all ancestral traditions and collaborate to preserve First Nations cultures.
Since 2018, Maxo Lauture and Sophie Germain have worked together to create masks and costumes for their Haitian inspired exhibitions and artistic workshops.