Disguised as Your True Self

Standing out at a Louisiana Mardi Gras celebration is no small feat. But in 2019, at parades in New Orleans and courirs in Mamou, a certain few masked revelers drew a second, and often third, glance—bearing on their shoulders massively elaborate visages of wild birds of prey, pink disco elephants, warthogs with optical illusions as skin, and buck-toothed clowns.

Such characters can be traced back to French Caribbean sculpture artists Jean-Luc Toussaint and his wife Vanessa Guy-Toussaint, who lead the street performance troupe Aso Mawon Matnik out of Schoelcher, Martinique. The group, a sort of ‘krewe’ in their own right, participated in a cultural exchange during Mardi Gras 2019—facilitated through NUNU Arts and Culture Collective and the Consulate General of France in New Orleans—which sent them on a whirlwind Louisiana Carnival experience that included marching in the Muses parade and participating in two Acadiana courirs. Their time here also included a series of workshops in which the artists shared traditional Martinique mask-making techniques, taught primarily in French, across Acadiana.

[Read more about the Martinique-style mask-making workshop the Toussaint are holding at NUNU here.]

The couple will return this year just in time to assist interested Louisianans in creating one-of-a-kind, showstopping regalia for this year’s Mardi Gras celebrations. The three-day workshop hosted by NUNU will include instruction on how to creatively construct the stunning 3-D masks signature to Martinique tradition, as well as conversations on the connections and distinctions between Caribbean and Louisianan Carnival celebrations.

Carnival arrived in Martinique much the same way it did in Louisiana, with the French Catholic settlers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In Martinique, though, the tradition was additionally influenced by the island’s population of enslaved Africans—whose imitations of the French settlers’ lavish celebrations served as a mechanism to honor the folklore and traditions of their homeland. Carnival as it is practiced today in Martinique officially began in 1870 after slavery was abolished—and carried forth many of these African traditions, including the “Red Devil” character at the center of Mardi Gras day. The traditional “Red Devil” mask, Toussaint explained, is covered in mirrors—which represent knowledge, and several horns—which connect the wearer to the cosmos.

“When you wear a mask, the true version of yourself is between the real face and the mask … it’s not one or the other, it’s in between. Because you exchange something very very intense with people when you wear this mask. The way they are seeing you is transforming the way you feel about yourself. It’s special.” —Vanessa Guy-Toussaint

Toussaint and Guy-Toussaint, along with the other members of Aso Mawon Matnik, begin crafting their Carnival masks as early as October, “and finish the day before,” laughed Guy-Toussaint. While many individuals and groups in Martinique make and wear masks, what Aso Mawon Matnik and other similar associations do is an act of cultural preservation, committed to the artistry of traditional mask-making. “Our particularity is that we have a kind of way of making masks that are very personal, very elaborate, very artistic,” said Guy-Toussaint.

The group has traveled all over the world, particularly to places of Creole culture, offering traditional mask-making workshops—and this will be their third visit to Louisiana as artists-in-residence at NUNU. This year’s workshop will invite mask-makers to create a disguise that doubles as an authentic expression of their “true identity”—an unexpected twist on the way Mardi Gras façades are typically perceived.

[Read about New Orleans painter Terrance Osborne's interpretations of Mardi Gras on canvas here.]

“When you wear a mask,” explained Guy-Toussaint, “the true version of yourself is between the real face and the mask … it’s not one or the other, it’s in between. Because you exchange something very very intense with people when you wear this mask. The way they are seeing you is transforming the way you feel about yourself. It’s special.”

Beatrice Germaine, the Executive Director of the French American Chamber of Commerce in New Orleans, said that besides the gorgeous skull mask she took home in 2019, she gained a new perspective on cultural representation and participation across Carnival celebrations. “Suddenly, it’s not just a costume, but you’re representing something symbolic, and the Caribbean tradition as a whole,” she said.

“Suddenly, it’s not just a costume, but you’re representing something symbolic, and the Caribbean tradition as a whole,” —Beatrice Germaine

After Toussaint and Guy-Toussaint’s mask-making workshop, to be held at NUNU the weekend before Mardi Gras, participants are encouraged to go out and wear their creations in their individual celebrations of Louisana Carnival—marching in parades, attending balls, chasing a chicken in a courir. Then, they are invited to return them to NUNU—rumpled and soaked in sweat and mud and beer as they are, the marks of Mardi Gras upon them—for an exhibition at Saint Luc French Immersion and Cultural Campus this spring. Oral history will be incorporated, too, when everyone is invited to share a meal and storytelling session around the entire experience.

The knowledge and context shared in such a cultural exchange shifts one’s entire worldview, said Germaine. “It just brings explanations of the traditions we have here, just talking together … and it’s keeping this process alive, the discussions alive and modern and contemporary alongside issues we have now.”

For the Toussaints, experiencing Louisiana’s version of Carnival has been its own enriching experience. “As a Creole person, I cannot say exactly why, but I think there is some kind of familiarity here,” said Guy-Toussaint. “A lot of little things I can recognize. I feel very at home. It’s really a culture here, and it has been a very, very important experience for me. It’s widened my vision of what it is to be Creole.”

The Martinique-Style Mask-Making Workshop Retreat will take place from February 10–13 at NUNU Arts and Culture Collective in Arnaudville. $150 for members; $450 for non-members (with the option of becoming a NUNU member for as little as $25 annually). Learn more at nunuaccollective.homesteadcloud.com.

Learn more about the Toussaints at jean-luc-toussaint.com.