The phrase “a rug can be a home in the middle of the desert” applies and is understood without much difficulty the same in America, Asia or Europe. A rug is a garment that “connects us with the ground and with other people”; it is, by definition, a collective piece, both in its creation and in its use; reflects Juliana Fagua, curator of the temporary exhibition “Spinning Rituals. Ten years of Bi Yuu ”, which she opens this Friday, May 5 at the Franz Mayer Museum, to“ pay homage to the rug, and to textiles in general, as cultural objects ”.
It took almost two years to put on display this extraordinary exhibition of the textile art and design collection of Bi Yuu, an atelier for textile experimentation and a space for social innovation, founded in 2012 at the initiative of Marisol Centeno, with the purpose of exploring textile design, experimentation with colors from certified natural or industrial pigments, and incorporating ancestral weaving techniques, particularly with communities from Teotitlán del Valle, in Oaxaca, and in Bhadohi, India, two cities with centuries-old textile tradition , to produce pieces that, due to their design and quality, are at the level of contemporary art.
However, they are pieces for everyday use, where design has a function that goes beyond aesthetic content, says Marisol Centeno, Bi Yuu’s creative director.
“Textiles accompany us in our daily rituals. Rugs, rugs, tablecloths, and other fabrics shelter the surfaces where we eat, play, pray, and perform other everyday but powerful ceremonies.”
“In Mexico, there is still an idea that design is linked to luxury, and I think that it is not like that, that it goes beyond that and that it should be almost a right for everyone (…) I am very excited because I think that The fact that an independent design project, with a philosophy of social contemporary design, manages to be in a museum like this, opens a gap to start having a different conversation about what design is”, shares Marisol in a brief talk with The Economist.
The sample that is presented from this Friday allows to visualize through the warp the web of processes, materials, techniques and personal stories that culminate in a unique and unrepeatable piece of art.
In a press conference this Thursday, when welcoming the exhibition, Giovana Jaspersen, general director of the Franz Mayer Museum, reflects precisely on the challenge for the curatorship and museography areas to make visible “that collective voice” that is behind the Bi Yuu’s ten-year work and, at the same time, without losing centrality in his collection, was able to enter into dialogue with other pieces from the collections of the host museum itself and the Contemporary Art University Museum.
“The exhibition is a tribute to the creative talent of our country, it is part of a program that we have prepared in the Franz Mayer rooms in relation to women and new models of the creative economy, which allow us to remember what is happening in Mexican design, which is becoming an international benchmark”, the museum director added.
Thematic nuclei, from Oaxaca to India
The exhibition “Spinning Rituals. Ten years of Bi Yuu” is divided into six exhibition nuclei: ‘The first dream: the origin of Bi Yuu’, which addresses the genesis of the project in a general and introductory manner; ‘X-ray of the fabric’, which presents the series of steps before, during and after weaving, how the warp and weft are constructed; ‘Experimentation and alchemy’, which explains the process of experimenting with colour, shape, technique, designs and the materiality of textiles.
It continues, beyond the Mexican borders, with ‘The flying carpet: connections with Asia’, which addresses the ritual centrality of the rug in oriental cultures, as well as its relationship and resignification in dialogue with the Mexican piece; It is followed by ‘New horizons: towards social design’, which shows how Bi Yuu, as a space for social innovation, seeks to positively impact its environment and explore the possibilities of design as a tool for social change.
Finally, ‘Epilogue: the rug as an oasis’, which offers a tribute to floor textiles and the importance of soil and earth as primary surfaces of connection with nature, a worldview shared by the artisan communities of Teotitlán del Valle and Bhadohi. .
The exhibition is completed with an immersive room, on the ground floor of the venue, where members of the Teotitlán del Valle community, in their own voice, share personal stories linked to the ancestral practice of weaving and, finally, a collaborative wall where visitors They will insert, like threads of the plot, their own experience into the warp of the creative process of the exhibition.
“Spinning rituals. Ten years of Bi Yuu”
- From May 5 to August 27
- Franz Mayer Museum
- Av. Hidalgo 45, Historic Center, Mexico City.
conversation
- “Weaving dialogues”
- Moderator: Cristina de León, Curator of Latino Art at the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design, New York
- Saturday May 6
- 1:00 p.m.
Auditorium of the Franz Mayer Museum
The interdisciplinary dialogue between crafts, design, and industry has allowed the project to innovate in creative processes, develop production methodologies with environmental and social responsibility, and embrace Mexico’s multiculturalism.”
Marisol Centeno, creative director of Bi Yuu.
