DISCOVERING A COLLECTION: THE GRIMACES OF HEADS ON A PLATTER
Madonna, Cleopatra, De Funes, Batman, Margaret Tatcher, Jacques Chirac, Frankenstein, Tintin, Johnny Hallyday, Little Red Riding Hood and many celebrities welcome you to the Musée des Arts Forains in a burlesque and comical way!
Nestled on the various facades of the stone cellars of the Pavillons de Bercy, from the museum entrance to the Théâtre de Verdure, these plaster faces watch the crowd with a mischievous air.
Originally, these sculptures were used as molds for the manufacture of thermoformed plastic masks, used for Carnival and other disguised festivities.
To complete his museum and his unique and lively scenography, Jean Paul Favand, director of the Musée des Arts Forains, collected 800 of these zany pieces in 2010 during a big sale in Saumur. Through this acquisition, he preserved these sculptures that were intended for scrap after the mask manufacturing factory was restructured.
Today these sculptures are cleaned and treated to cope with bad weather, and they accompany the museum’s whole troupe of curious objects with an air of humor and fantasy.
Published on 07.05.19
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