Alebrijes are traditional papier-mâché sculptures depicting wild, domestic animals or dreamlike and fantastic creatures, usually made of hybrid elements.

They carry within them all the imaginary, both aesthetic and iconographic Mexican. Animals like the jaguar, hummingbird, cat, seahorse, which are each totem animal, are revered and guide the souls of the dead through the passage into the other world.

The Alebrijes were born from the spirit of Pedro Linares López in 1936. Legend has it that the latter, on the verge of death, dreamed of a wood populated by those creatures who accompanied him in his return to consciousness. Some of these monsters were shouting «Alebrijes, Alebrijes, Alebrijes». That’s how he decided to name his creations

Each Alebrije is unique and reflects both the imagination of its creator and the personified symbolism of a character, a person, a spirit.

Like an El Dorado fantasized or dreamed, the Alebrijes are the gateway to an unknown universe, and refer both to the vernacular practices of Mexican civilization, as well as more broadly to the monsters and chimeras that have populated the stories of any civilization since the dawn of time.

You can also find the giant Alebrijes on the Rambla Rue Faidherbe in Lille and on the Place des Martyrs in Roubaix until 1 December 2019.

With the support of the Museum of Popular Art of Mexico.

The Skulls are on loan from a funeral home company in Mexico City, Mexicraneos. They were presented at the last El Dia de los Muertos parade in Mexico City in November 2018.

If, at the time of the Aztecs, the disappeared were already celebrated with songs and dances during the celebration of feasts for the deceased: one for children (Miccaihuitntli) and the other for adults 20 days later (Hueymiccalcalhuitl), this tradition did not completely disappear with the arrival of the Spanish colonists at the beginning of the 16th century.

Thus, El Día de los Muertos has remained the most important celebration of the year since it was established in the 1920s by the nationalist governments that emerged from the 1910 revolution.

A mixture of Aztec tradition and the Christian festivals of the Spanish conquistadors, the Day of the Dead is strongly symbolized by these Calaveras. Indeed, every November 2, small sugar skulls (Calaveras de dulce) are made to decorate the altars, serve as offerings and celebrate the deceased during very festive ceremonies.

Very present also in Western iconography since the Middle Ages, skull imagery has, over the centuries, been taken up by the underground generation in the United States, especially by the entire Old School scene.

In 2003, UNESCO classified the indigenous festivals dedicated to the dead as ’’Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’’.

Find other skulls in the station Ilévia Gare Lille Flandres and in the Lille Europe train station. With the support of Mexicraneos.