On Wednes­day, Au­gust 10, the Artists’ Coali­tion of T&T (ACTT) in­stalled the Car­ni­val Queen cos­tume “Madame Co­coyea” in the foy­er of Cin­e­ma One IMAX at One Wood­brook Place, Port-of-Spain. The in­stal­la­tion was spon­sored by BRY­DEN pi as part of Pan­theon—the King and Queen Cos­tumes of T&T Car­ni­val Ex­hi­bi­tion’s “ADOPT-A-COS­TUME” cam­paign, which urges cor­po­rate and State T&T to save se­lect King and Queen cos­tumes from de­struc­tion by adopt­ing them and ex­hibit­ing them in lob­bies, foy­ers, and their spaces for a year or more.

The in­stal­la­tion al­so marked the launch of an ACTT led cam­paign to ac­quire cor­po­rate part­ners for its Make Madame Co­coyea iun­to a Su­per Hero cam­paign which will ask pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school age stu­dents and youths un­der 35 to ‘’cre­ate a back­sto­ry and first ad­ven­ture for Madame Co­coyea.’’ The win­ning en­tries will re­ceive prizes and see their sto­ries turned in­to a com­ic book and a one minute car­toon which will be shown on IMAX screens for a year! In this way the Car­ni­val Queen cos­tume will not on­ly be saved from de­struc­tion but now be­come im­mor­talised & con­vert­ed in­to con­tem­po­rary pop cul­ture.

Madame Cocoyea installed in Imax Lobby

Pan­theon is an ex­hi­bi­tion cel­e­brat­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s King and Queen of Car­ni­val cos­tume tra­di­tion. It was cre­at­ed in 2021 by ACTT’s founder and pres­i­dent, Rubadiri Vic­tor, and in the first year was staged in Wood­ford Square. In 2022 it was staged in Mille Fleurs, one of the Mag­nif­i­cent 7 great hous­es around the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah. The May­or of Port of Spain adopt­ed the event as a per­ma­nent part of the city’s post-Car­ni­val cal­en­dar, and is a pa­tron of the event.

The King and Queen Cos­tumes are the crown spec­ta­cles of Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val ar­ti­san­ry. Up to 30ft up and 30ft across, borne by a soli­tary hu­man fig­ure, they lead bands of cos­tumed in­di­vid­u­als as Mon­archs across stages and through the streets.

They are the cul­mi­na­tion of the imag­i­na­tive, dec­o­ra­tive, and en­gi­neer­ing arts of the is­land. T&T has cre­at­ed a form of large scale cos­tum­ing, unique in the world in its be­lief that the danc­ing-hu­man and ex­tend­ed-cos­tumed body can sig­ni­fy any mes­sage imag­in­able—from the in­ti­mate to the epic. We have nev­er had a Na­tion­al Ex­hi­bi­tion cel­e­brat­ing them be­fore. Un­til now.

Ruth Adams-Mendez is Madame Cocoyea