“In Mexico there is a sort of double code with reference to design and the relationship between design and craftsmanship. This can be traced back to the co-existence of pre-Hispanic and contemporary languages”. This is Laura Noriega speaking, a Mexican designer, founder of Studio Tributo, together with her sister Gabriela, manager.

Working on a double expressive theme with all its facets, Tributo is at the heart of a large research movement and a project that goes beyond the borders between design and craftsmanship and that involves some of the most dynamic Mexican studios such as David Pompa, Onora, Diario Shop, Aurea, Bi Yuu, Oax-i-fornia.

But let’s proceed with order. This story started back in 2007 in Milan, where Laura attended a master class in interior architecture at the Polytechnic School. When she returned to her country, she got in touch with a new Mexico, partly unknown, in which a lot of traditions of manual work were getting lost. In order to re-establish a relationship with that world, she contacted other designers and started to organize visits to a few artisan workshops to gain more knowledge about them.

These initiatives were also spurred  by the research work and the workshops organized with the Instituto Tecnològico de Monterrey campus Guadalajara. Among the recurring factors that characterized the Mexican craftsmanship of that period, the most alarming were a decrease in manufacturing capacity and, at the same time, a lack of generational continuity.

The best move to oppose these trends and enhance the cultural heritage of Mexican craftsmanship was radical: organizing workshops on jointly participated projects and promoting the transposition of products from their original framework, that is, traditional loca l markets, to cultural and communication venues, such as art galleries or museums.

The first workshop, organized in 2008, concerned the use of basaltic stone of volcanic origin to manufacture a traditional mortar, called molcajete. A few years later Studio Area reinterpreted  this same type of object using ceramic and wood.

The co-operation in Mexico between craftsmen and designers, providing an incredible opportunity of mutual enrichment: in this North American country the relationship between furniture or lighting industries and designers is evolving and this project enabled designers to get in touch with an operational dimension that would help them grow.

A series of jewels and USB keys were created in basalt, stemming from a reflection on the sense of permanence contrasting with the loss of things, amplified by the digital era. The project was featured by Laura Noriega at the Salone Satellite in Milan in 2011, together with Secretos, a small piece of furniture characterized by edges that recall a typical Mexican pattern called tenango.

This time the challenge was that of convincing craftsmen to make this animal themed decoration in a very small scale, proving   able to enhance a manual work which was usually performed on large pieces of fabric.

Studio Tributo was founded one year later, with a view to becoming the centre of what was developing into a true movement for a new interpretation of craftsmanship. Among the main objectives of the designers involved in the project, there was that of making a sort of “map of diversity” referring to the great number of artisan forms scattered throughout the country.

A diversity which is rooted in history. After the Conquest, many non local techniques were introduced in Mexico. They overlapped with  more ancient techniques, such as the tension loom, stone etching and some forms of metal work and inlay work.

The introduction of new techniques brought about new forms of expression, first of all, bursts of colour that defined a style parallel to more ancient pure and monochromatic patterns. It is from the discovery of these two codes – pre-Hispanic and post-Hispanic – that stemmed the most interesting and almost unexpected factor for designers: the conscious use of these two repertoires and their creative versions are an incredible opportunity for both craftsmen and designers to put their linguistic identity into focus within the versatile expressive panorama of our contemporary times.

Chromatic exuberance, for instance, has become a precious tool for Mexican young designers who have grown with a modern attitude towards the use of neutral shades – whites, blacks, greys – that in a few cases has developed into a sort of chromophobia.

The results of this research work are outstanding in the loom-woven carpets by Bi Yuu and in the work performed by Studio Dario on Palm Project home furnishings; on the other hand, the textile projects developed by Studio Dario are closer to a revisited version of neutral pre-Hispanic traditional works.

The result of this kind of approach is almost disruptive: the more Mexican designers develop their relationship with local craftsmen, the more their language seems to be able to cross the borders of global design and to assert a strong connotation against prejudice and scepticism (“do Mexican designers exist?).

With one more distinctive peculiarity: while in some countries, in any case, design plays a leading role compared to craftsmanship, in Mexico the encounter between these two worlds leads designers to radically reassess themselves until a new zero level is defined: a basic linguistic code that can be used to write a new story.

Text by Guido Musante

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The piece of furniture Secretos featured by Laura Noriega (Tributo) at the Salone Satellite in Milan in 2011, with decorations that reproduce the patterns of Tenangos fabrics by Otomi-Tepehua indigenous people.
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The fragility of digital information makes the accessories that can stock data really precious. The USB key in basaltic stone Levedad by Tributo recalls an era when data was secure, sculpted in stone.
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The USB key in basaltic stone Levedad by Tributo.
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Luna jewels feature a fragment of basaltic stone set in silver that seems to come from our satellite, the moon (designer Laura Noriega-Tributo, 2013, craftsmen Ignacio García and Felipe Cárdenas).
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Luna jewels (designer Laura Noriega-Tributo, 2013, craftsmen Ignacio García and Felipe Cárdenas).
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Luna jewels (designer Laura Noriega-Tributo, 2013, craftsmen Ignacio García and Felipe Cárdenas).
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The Cerámica collection designed by Studio Aurea and coming from an experimental project on the transformation cycles of matter. It includes objects initially created in wood and subsequently reproduced in ceramic.
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The artisan carpets Recuerdos and Ares by Bi Yuu, belonging to the Norte 61 collection. They are dyed using a Japanese technique called shibori, which is unknown in Mexico, while the fabric is in mercerized cotton and Merino wool.
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The artisan carpets Recuerdos and Ares by Bi Yuu, belonging to the Norte 61 collection.
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Commissioned by Secretaría de Cultura messicana, the Palm project by Moisés Hernández stemmed from a journey in Tlamacazapa, a small town specialized in working braded palm leaves. It includes several home objects and accessories, that have been developed with the participation of twenty local craftsmen.
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The Palm project by Moisés Hernández.
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The Palm project by Moisés Hernández.
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The Palm project by Moisés Hernández.