Masquerading is part of everyday life and festive events, and we follow it through the customs of the annual and life cycle. With its long history, the remnants of which have been preserved to this day with numerous adaptations, it connects our past with our future. The exhibition presents various forms of masquerading with an emphasis on Slovenia's carnival heritage. On display are more than 120 masks, outfits, and props from the museum's Slovenian and non-European collections.

Since the dawn of civilization, masks have been used throughout the world and are in this sense universal. Their role and significance have changed through time – Stone Age hunters used them as a disguise that helped them catch their pray; later they served as ritual objects endowed with magic powers. Masks played an important role in rites of passage, which marked the transition in a person’s life from one stage or status to another. With the rise of Christianity in Late Antiquity, the original significance of ritual practices was diminishing in the Middle Ages, and masks gradually became a means of entertainment.

“Every now and then one just wants to be ‘someone else’.”
Niko Kuret, 1963

From birth to death, life’s milestones are marked by life-cycle customs – established practices and rituals associated with different stages of the life cycle. Certain customs involve masked characters, either as a remnant of their protective function or merely for entertainment Masquerading is particularly characteristic of pre-wedding customs (bachelorette and bachelor parties, wedding invitations) and wedding customs (the fake bride, wedding reception), but also occurs in customs associated with secondary and higher education (initiation ceremonies) and 50th birthday celebrations.

Religious and other holidays of the calendar year have a special significance for people and their communities. Some annual customs associated with masking have disappeared, others have adapted and safeguarded: the chasing away of the pehtra baba, e.g., on St. Martin's Day, St. Lucy's Day, St. Nicholas' Day, at Christmas, New Year's, Epiphany, Shrovetide) or have been brought to Slovenia from other environments (Halloween).  

At the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, we began to focus more intensively on Shrovetide masquerading after World War II, when we included the first carnival masks and costumes in our museum collections. The main focus of the exhibition is precisely this constantly expanding collection of various materials (objects, photographs, field notes, etc.). The exhibited material reveals both the similarities and peculiarities of various carnival customs in Slovenia, which have constantly changed and adapted to time and space. They provide a sense of individual and collective identity to both the bearers of Shrovetide customs and traditions and the environment from which they originate. 

During Shrovetide, the world around us turns upside down; roles are reversed, and wrong is right. Private and public spaces become spaces of costume parties, carnivals, events, celebrations, and door-to-door rounds of traditional Shrovetide groups. Shrovetide celebrations fulfil satirical, entertaining, and social roles, reflected in traditional Shrovetide characters as well as in contemporary ones, who emerge as commentaries on the current social, economic, and political circumstances. The exhibition presents contemporary masquerading in Slovenia through selected examples: the course of different carnival events, displays of belonging, what is "hidden from view" or what visitors do not see, what happens during carnival, and what changes can be observed over the last century.

Exhibition Masks: From ritual to carnival was prepared by the Slovene ethnographic museum, represented by Blaž Verbič, director
Project leader: mag. Adela Pukl
Authors of the exhibition concept: mag. Anja Jerin, mag. Adela Pukl, Miha Špiček, Blaž Verbič
Curators of the exhibition: mag. Anja Jerin, mag. Adela Pukl, Miha Špiček
Texts: dr. Marko Frelih, mag. Anja Jerin, mag. Adela Pukl, Miha Špiček
Design of the exhibition architecture and graphic design: Rok Poles (Berivka d.o.o.)