Mexican Huichol art will be exhibited in Paris

With the exhibition “Huichol Art, Expression of a People”, Mexico is present in the 2019 edition of the Week of Latin American Cultures

At the invitation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( Unesco ), Huichol art will be the representative of Mexico in the 2019 edition of the Week of Latin American Cultures, to be held in Paris.

“I will talk about the importance of involving the artists of the communities so as not to lose the identity and cultural richness of the emblematic municipalities of our country”

In an interview, the commercial director of the Yawi Traditional Art Gallery ,Gerónimo Martínez, informed that the ambassador of the Delegation of Mexico in Unesco , Federico Salas, “invited us to this event”.

This, to be part of and organize the Latin American Week, specifically the pavilion of Mexico, to show the work of the Huichol artists in the framework of the Fourth Week of Latin America, with which this year Unesco celebrates culture and the indigenous languages.

That is why it is planned to mount the exhibition entitled “Huichol Art; Expression of a People”, with Huichol pieces in large format, as well as the work of renowned artists from that area.

Yawi art projects bring the public interested in the wonderful world that is created in the wixárikas communities of the Sierra Madre Occidental.

He commented that on this occasion it was the turn of the Yawi Gallery to be the official representative to bring the Mexican culture of popular artists, to where it had never before arrived, which is the international headquarters of the United Nations in Paris.

Gerónimo Martínez announced that they will be carrying around thirty pieces, including monumental and semi- monumental pieces and part of the Gregorio Barrio collection, which is the Huichol artist who “accompanies us on this trip”.

The pieces are made of glass bead, thread, silk, wood and other various components that serve as a base.

The inauguration of the Week of Latin American Cultures will take place this Monday, June 3 and later the headquarters will be moved to the Plaza San Michel, which is located in the heart of the Latin Quarter, to continue the exhibition there.

On the part of Mexico, the pieces that are carried are mainly of Huichol origin, although there are also Zapotec artists from Oaxaca who present Alebrijes and also some works from Nayarit and Zacatecas.

He stressed that one of the objectives of the exhibition is for Unesco to consider Huichol art as a cultural heritage of humanity, because in fact there is already a petition for the pieces of Talavera.

” What we are now trying to do is to include Huichol art , and there is a long way to go so that we can have an approach, together with the relevant institutions, so that this becomes a reality within a very short time .”

Later on, he highlighted that Unesco is fortunate enough to involve all aboriginal cultures, but within the framework of the Latin American Week only Mexico brings artists from the country’s ethnic communities.

Then, “as a representation of Latin America if it is being a watershed in the presence of artists, because although Latin Americans had appeared at Unesco, they had not been personally invited.”

He said that after this exhibition in Paris they would like to continue with the work of what is going to be presented in Belgium and London, although the venues still do not have them, the invitations are already confirmed.

On the other hand, Gerónimo Martínez informed that on June 6 he will give a philanthropic anthropological speech in Paris, about the importance of the development of ethnic communities and their artists, as a community development strategy.

“I will talk about the importance of involving the artists of the communities so as not to lose the identity and cultural richness of the emblematic municipalities of our country, and above all to avoid the massive migration of the talented artists of the popular fine arts of Mexico”, concluded.

Source: informador

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