Carnival – King of Europe

The exhibit, Carnival – King of Europe, will be open to the audiences until February 25th at the Ethnographic Museum. The exhibit was first shown in Trentino's Ethnographic Museum (Museum of Uses and Customs of the Trentino People) in San Michele all'Adige and is a joint project between museums in Zagreb, Marseille, Skopje and Sofia.

A great exhibit, Carnival – King of Europe will be open to the audiences throughout the days of Carnival, until February 25th, at the Ethnographic Museum. The project is co-organized by Trentino's Ethnographic Museum in San Michele all'Adige in Italy and the Ethnographic Museum of Zagreb. The exhibition is being financed by the European Union within the framework of the program Culture 2007 - 2009. In addition to Zagreb, the exhibit is being presented in collaboration with museums in Zagreb, Marseille, Skopje and Sofia. The concept is based on field research that was carried out last year in Italy, Croatia, Macedonia and Bulgaria.

The theme of the exhibit is the production of carnival masks in the European ethnographic context. The idea behind the exhibit is to make a connection between the Carnivals that are held in the entire region, from the Pyrenees and Central Europe, to the southern part of Italy and the Balkans. The Carnival traditions across these regions share the same characteristics in terms of the same celebrations, symbols, ceremonies represented by the exhibited masks which are worn during the different phases of Carnival – from the awakening of nature, helped by the ringing of bell ringers’ bells, and wedding ceremonies, to the winter fertility rituals, etc. Aside from the appropriate masks, the exhibit is also accompanied by photographs from various Carnivals, as well as two short films, “Carnival – King of Europe” and “A Day in Valfloriana, Rukavac, Čmelnik and Begnište.”

Before coming to Zagreb, the exhibit was on display in the Ethnographic Museum in Trentino and, from Zagreb, it will travel to the museums in the cities of the other countries participating in the project.