Video: Mexican Handcraft Masters | Lacquer, Gold and Cane

Pre-Hispanic and colonial traditions combine in Mario Agustín’s uniquely Mexican artworks.

From his family workshop in the town of Pátzcuaro in the Mexican state of Michoacán, Mario Agustín crafts religious icons and lavishly adorned plates from organic materials. Using local plants, mineral soil, cochineal insects and even cow urine to create unique materials and brilliant pigments, his crafts combine indigenous techniques dating back as far as 500 BCE with methods from the colonial era to create distinctly Mexican works of art. Part of the Mexican director Mariano Rentería Garnica’s Mexican Handcraft Masters short documentary series on artisans in Michoacán, this short portrait captures how Agustín keeps inherited knowledge alive through his work.

El artesano Mario Agustín y su familia trabajan 3 técnicas artesanales de gran herencia histórica para la cultura Purépecha. Desde íconos religiosos hechos de pasta de caña, hasta grandes platos decorados con oro, técnicas que se dice fueron enseñadas por Don Vasco de Quiroga o fusionadas con las que ya dominaban los indígenas de la región lacustre de Michoacán a finales del Siglo XV.

Director: Mariano Rentería Garnica

Producer: Jorge Díez Maza

Website: El Relicario

English text: Aeon

Running time: 6 minutes

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Filmado en Pátzcuaro, Michoacán
El Relicario, 2018