Special to The News
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Artists from an indigenous Mixtec community in Oaxaca have filled Mexico City’s Museo Nacional de Antropología with their generations-old stories, legends and myths. “Aves, Conejos y Palmas: Saber Mixteco Actual,” or “Birds, Rabbits and Palms: Mixtec Knowledge Today,” is on display in the museum’s Oaxaca Culture exhibition room through May 31.
Hosted by the National Anthropology and History Institute, the exhibition represents artistic traditions from the 6,000-member Pinotepa de Don Luis village.
For centuries the community has recorded its fantastic tales on earthenware jugs, bowls and embroidered cloths. Its dedication to agriculture, farming and textiles is reflected in the artwork: stalks of corn, flowers and leaves, rabbits and snakes are etched into the artisan history.
Today, the artists from Oaxaca’s southern coast are using a new canvas to pass stories down to younger generations: Converse sneakers.
“We weave legends that are written into the Mixtec memory: from mouths to ears, from ears to hands, and from hands to the eyes of the world,” artist Ildefonso López said in a press release.The exhibition room displays Mixtec pottery, garments and black-and-white lithographs, some pieces dating back nearly 80 years. Leading up to the room is a long, wide hallway lined with a row of 10 painted Chuck Taylor high-top sneakers, each displayed behind individual glass casings.
PAINTING FOOTSTEPS
The Converse exhibit-within-an-exhibit aims to highlight the continuity, relevance and transformation of Mixtec storytelling in the 21st century. Mixtec legends depicted on the sneakers include: Kernels of corn; Rabbit in the moon; Legend of the wolf; The bull; Snake and the iguana; Legend of the birds; The Lion; and Sirens of the sea.
López’s pair of Chucks on display tells the story of how the ocelot, through vanity and arrogance, acquired his spots. His piece “Las Manchas del Ocelote,” or “Ocelot’s Spots,” presents an abstract mosaic of purple, blue and red flowers. Slinking ocelots creep around the heels and along the sides of the shoes, with spotted fur on one pair and without spots on the next.
Several pedestals down, Santiago Sarmiento’s shoes detail the “Leyenda del Cometa,” or “Legend of the Comet.” Standing heel-to-heel, the shoes show split rocks atop a green hill surrounded by lapping ocean waves. A shoe tongue reveals the body of the long, green lizard-like being, called NDOSO in Mixtec. Another scene depicts a community elder recounting the story to two boys.
Sarmiento said the chance to present his work in Mexico’s anthropology museum was a dream come true. “This signifies the chance to bring recognition to the world of Mixtec culture, to rescue the Mixtec culture through sneakers,” he said at the exhibit’s April 2 inauguration. “There hasn’t been much interest on the part of our youth, and there are people in our community who don’t care to rescue our culture.”
López, 27, and Sarmiento, 30, are members of the Grabadores Mixtecos Unidos, or the United Association of Mixtec Engravers, a nearly 10-year-old civil group bringing opportunities to artists in Pinotepa de Don Luis.
Together with Converse of Mexico, the group in late 2004 launched its philanthropic artistic endeavor, Pintando Pasos, or “Painting Footsteps.” Under the guidance of renowned Oaxacan artist Juan Alcázar, local artists have tailored their traditional skills to fit the high-top canvases for exhibition and commercial distribution.
“The Converse sneakers have become a blank canvas, where artists draw and express all the ideas that have been passed down generation after generation,” Converse spokeswoman Carina de los Santos said at the inauguration.
“This is a way to remember that Mexico exists.”
Converse of Mexico maintains logistics and financial support for exhibitions like that at Mexico’s anthropology museum. The company’s initial investment of $400,000 has covered costs of shoes, paint and income for artists and their families.
According to Converse of Mexico, the Pintando Pasos project aims to create sustainable development and employment for the Mixtec people, rescuing their cultural traditions and incorporating them through art into the contemporary world.
The shoes in recent years have been sold and exhibited in countries like Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, Spain and Japan, in addition to Mexico. In Mexico City, they’ve sold for as much as $300 in Palacio de Hierro department stores and the Converse shop in Polanco.
The Pintando Pasos project in 2005 was recognized as the best social assistance project in the region at the 2nd Exhibition of Latin American Design, hosted in Amsterdam.
López said the Pintando Pasos project is more than just a source of employment for all the artists involved – it’s a chance to keep their cultural roots alive.
“We’re presenting more than just out creativity; we’re demonstrating the knowledge we’ve acquired from our ancestors,” he said at the event.
López said the Mixtec Engravers’ pilot project is a community cultural center, bringing artists, artisans and musicians together to share the lessons and teachings of Mixtec culture with the village’s youth.
For more information on Pintando Pasos, visit www.grabadoresmixtecos.org.mx/index.shtml
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