Sergio Boldrin, Artist Mask Maker

I’m Sergio Boldrin, I’m a mask artisan and a painter. I’ve been working in this shop for 31 years. I create papier-mache masks and I oil paint.

We create the masks following the Venetian tradition using papier-mache, without the use of machines
or modern technologies, in the traditional way, just like the “mascareri” (mask makers) have been doing since the XIII century, creating models for the parties and the Carnival of the Venetian aristocracy.

I started back in 1979, when the Carnival was re-discovered thanks to the Biennale. I and a bunch of guys started then making our first masks, that was the spark that disclosed to us the “world” of masks.

It is essential, in Venice, to identify the papier-mache mask because we are now surrounded by “made in China” shops and products made out of plastic or synthetic materials, which have nothing to do with our tradition.

It is crucial to promote the artisanal and artistic production in Venice, a production that is, sadly, disappearing together with the traditional knowledge. It has now become a real struggle to keep the workshops running: I personally try to keep growing and keep the tradition alive, by teaching my brother, my daughter, and my nephew.

Yes, it’s a particular type of papier-mache mask. As a young guy, I used to go to exhibitions at Ca’ Rezzonico, to admire the Venetian production of the ‘700. When I started creating masks, I went back there, looking for something inspiring and there Tiepolo’s “Pulcinella’s swing” fresco, inspired me to oil paint some masks which I used as a canvas, to reproduce the fresco. Those were the first masks ever with frescos and paintings of the Venetian artists.

When we speak of creating different masks, we speak of using clay for creating first the positive, then obtaining the negative mold, and finally the papier-mache mask. We have around 150 different molds, more or less.

Masks have a world of possibilities, masks are sculpture. Inspiration can come from History, and that only gives never ending ideas, or by Nature: suns, moons, leaves… everything! There is really a world of possibilities: the problem for a mask maker is not finding subjects, the problem is a lack of time for doing them all!

Yes, I would be happy to give an advice to our friends coming to Venice: walk slow, don’t run, stop and observe particular situations, there still are some, explore places that are not just around San Marco and Rialto and, most of all, don’t be in a hurry.

Like Saint Francis used to say: “A person that works with his hands, is a worker; a person that works with his hands and his mind, is an artisan; a person that works with his hands, his mind and his heart, is an artist”.