‘Vision and Tradition’ explores contemporary design and Mexican artisanship

The fourteenth edition of Mexico Design Week has coloured Mexico city in shades of art and design with a wide range of activities enhancing the traditional roster. The event commenced on October 12, 2022, and will continue till November 13, 2022. With the visionary disposition of its founding partners Andrea Cesarman, Marco Coello, Maria Laura, Medina de Salinas, Jaime Hernández and Emilio Cabrero, the design event organised by Mexico Territorio Creativo, is currently hosting multiple exhibitions, design installation, and discourses across different locations. Over the years, Design week’s mission has been to promote creativity and craftsmanship through all its facets, not just as a platform for portraying the continuously evolving world of design, but also as a supporting tool for economic, sociocultural, and environmental development. Like every preceding edition, the illustrious design fair aims to explore various practices from around the world, with a focus on a specific region. This year, the spotlight is on Brazil as the guest country and their artistic community of Metepec, from the state of Mexico. Among the four major ongoing exhibitions are the creative project Design House, Design Tours exploring contemporary and artisanal design through a small circuit of Mexican design spots, Inedito, an exploratory open design event, the vibrant residency program and exhibition Visions and Traditions.

Currently, being held at the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, the 8th edition of the Vision and Tradition exhibition commenced as a residency program for the design, exchange, and production of pieces focused on promoting interaction dynamics between designers and artisan creators. For the program, multiple designers were paired with artisans from rural communities, who worked symbiotically to design products, in a poetic dialogue of contemporary design vision and traditional craft production. Additionally, the residency actively addressed different collaborative arrangements for fabricating the pieces, adhering to proximity and restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of the participating craft workshops included— Antelmo Gonzalez, Cecilio Sanchez Fierro, Daniela Soteno, Maria Molina, and Victor Lopez. Brazilian designers included— Nina Coimbra, Rodrigo Ambrose, and Sergio J. Matos as well as Mexican design studios such as AD HOC studios, Lili Cortina, and Naso Vargas, among others.

Among the noteworthy projects were the collaborative works of Metepec-based Cecilio Sanchez, who is known for his artworks created using clay and natural minerals. Sanchez worked with Mexican design firm ACOOCOORO to create extravagant cenotaphs using pigmented mud. Resulting in the revival of an extraordinary craft practice that colourfully captures the essence of indigenous Mexican culture. Mexican artist Daniela Soteno, whose practice revolves around creating vibrant figurines and figurative art, collaborated with product designer Lili Cortina, to design a vegetable candle holder, and a sculpture based on the Tree of Life clay sculpture in polychrome clay, pottery, and ceramic. Both Cortina and Soteno channelled rural craft from the Metepec region that revolves around depicting elaborate and highly coloured sculptures, traditionally designed to teach biblical stories. The duo also designed a pair of small tables titled Root Tables using burnished clay.

The young Brazilian designer Rodrigo Ambrosio partnered with industrial designer Victor Lopez to create Snake Tables and La Pirinola toy set, carved in wood, evocative of a childhood memory. Designer Sergio Matos worked with Maria Molina, a traditional crafts designer from the Molina Family Artisan Workshop, to create Scale Lamp and Molina Lamp, designed using vegetable fibres and fine palm fabric.

Mexican design company AD HOC that strives to enrich the world with furnishings inspired by Mexican crafts, worked with multiple designers and artists such as Justina and Silviano Medrano over the Pirinola Stool, Rodolfo Sanchez for the Monarca pigmented clay vase, and Sergio Hernandez for the Huixcolotla Cushion and a walnut wood nightstand. The unique Raíces stool that AD HOC designed in collaboration with Ammann Gallery, Angulo Cero, and Marco Garcia, has the appearance of a wooden brush with bristles attached to a comfortable seat, and was another noteworthy exhibit. Among the other products on display, is the pair of marble vases named Vase Holy by Terben Pinson and La Cosita Chula, volcanic stone candle stands by Jose Ignacio Vargas and Francisco Huazo, and a Rebozo sheep textile wall art by Jose Maria Balmaceda and La Reboceria.

Celebrating the beauty of traditional craftsmanship with a vision for the future, the creative design exhibition righteously encompasses multiple rural craft practices and helps bring different artists and design practitioners together.

Mexico Design Week commenced on October 12, 2022 and will continue till November 13, 2022.

The Vision and Traditions exhibition, on the other hand, is on display from October 12, 2022 to November 05, 2022.