As you entered Mille Fleurs you were greeted by large king and queen costumes on the grounds as well as in the building.
This year’s second-place queen costume, Madame Cocoyea, stood behind the podium as the president of the Artists’ Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT) Rubadiri Victor addressed the media at the launch of Pantheon II – The King and Queen Costumes of TT Carnival, at Mille Fleurs, Maraval Road, Port of Spain.
The exhibition includes six King and Queen costumes, five installations and three mannequinned King tunics on the grounds. He said three other King and Queen costumes were moved due to arising commercial opportunities and repair. Inside there are three more King and Queen costumes, 33 panels of King and Queen exhibition info with 24 small signs and info panels.
[caption id="attachment_945992" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Rubadiri Victor wearing the bat head piece, a traditional mas, at Papier Mache head done by "Art Brown" Phillip Charles on display in Mille Fleurs, Port of Spain. Pantheon is a series of exhibitions on the King and Queen Costumes of TT's Carnival. Photo by Jeff K Mayers[/caption]
"There are 12 other installations pertaining to the tribute to the artisans, wirebenders and traditional mas. Over five King and Queen costumes will visit to dance on our special event days. We expect as many as eight more costumes to join the exhibition. All are landscaped with lights," he said.
At the exhibition’s launch on March 9, Victor called on corporate TT to adopt a costume and have it displayed in their atriums, lobbies and other spaces.
The exhibition was first held last year at Woodford Square, Port of Spain.
Victor said the exhibition will be open from 10 am-6 pm daily. There will be four special events during the exhibition’s run he added: two moonlight lectures, a tea party and a family day on the closing day, March 27.
The exhibition costs $50 for adults and $20 for children. He said NGOs, schools and other institutions can make special requests for discounts or have the fee waived. The funds raised from the tea party will be for the National Trust and the upkeep of Mille Fleurs (its headquarters) and other heritage buildings under its purview.
[caption id="attachment_945988" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Costume titled PICHE on display at Mille Fleurs, Maraval Road, Port of Spain in Pantheon, a series of exhibitions on the King and Queen Costumes of TT's Carnival. - Jeff K Mayers[/caption]
For Victor, the king and queen costume tradition is the pinnacle of the Carnival arts and artisan arts.
“It is where artisanry, engineering, the imaginative extravagance of the Trinbagonian personality and all of these things come to bear. It is the greatest kind of symbol and expression of our creativity at large,” he said.
Victor said TT pioneered a form of costume-making which signified great ideas and embodied things from insects to gods. Mas pushes the envelope in terms of human expression, imagination and engineering, he said.
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