MASKS AND METAMORPHOSIS
Click on the above thumbnails to view the pictures full size, together with captions.
The Exhibition MASKS AND METAMORPHOSIS was held in Malta in 1992. Below are the programme notes written by Dr Vicki-Ann Cremona of the Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta. Since then, the carnival project has continued, both in Malta and in Gozo, Malta's sister island.
When plunging into the disruptive fun-world of Carnival, the merrymaker and the onlooker connive in inverting the established order, by creating a new parallel structure. Appearance and behaviour are transformed, the unacceptable becomes licit, the imaginary real.
In Gozo this process takes up diverse forms which vary widely from one place to another. Each local Carnival is thus endowed with its distinct characteristics: its particular colour and movement, its unique relationship to the society it reflects.
The aim of the Gozo Carnival project is to examine the different facets of Carnival on this island. Our research over the past three years has taken us across Gozo: from the organised, colourful Carnival of Rabat, with its floats, bands, and dancing companies, to the ritualistic dances froming "Il-Kummitiva" in Xaghra, to the smaller events in Xewkija and San Lawrenz, and finally to the sombre, weird spontaneity of the Carnival in Nadur.
In the course of our fieldwork, we have been accompanied by Darrin Zammit Lupi, who has ably captured, through his photographs, the different dynamics of Carnival in Gozo. He has concentrated especially on Nadur where the distinction between the onlooker and the person in disguise is transient: in a matter of seconds, a seemingly passive onlooker may disappear, only to reappear totally transformed, his identity dissimulated by a scarf or mask, bearing a wide variety of "props" or pushing "floats" - all to the rhythm of traditional instruments, particularly the "rumbaba", vieing for dominance with other more modern forms of music.
Darrin's photos are a means of sharing the emotions we have experienced in observing this metamorphosis.
© Darrin J. Zammit Lupi 2000