Documentary collection

Although masks are at the heart of living and oral traditions, they also leave behind written and visual traces. The MUMASK documentary collection brings together a rich and varied collection of posters, photographs taken in the field, travellers' accounts, ethnographers' notes and postcards.

The 4,000 documents in this collection help to anchor the objects in their context and recreate the gestures, sounds and intentions that surround them. By capturing what is essentially fleeting or changing, they offer valuable insight into intangible traditions while questioning the way we archive them.

Poster of the carnival of Charleroi of the year 1910, printing house Henri Herman.

Coco Fronsac is a multifaceted artist based in Paris. She hunts for old family photographs at flea markets. These anonymous portraits, dating from the late XIXᵉ and early XXᵉ centuries, feed her artistic imagination. By diverting their lost memorial function, she creates works that question memory and identity, playing on the poses and social conventions of the old days. In this way, her series blend the past with contemporary creation.

Published in 1859, Masques et Bouffons is both a sumptuous art album and a reference work on the Commedia dell'arte.