Memoria y Creación Contemporánea is a documentary and design project developed in 2018 through Tributo. It explores the geographical, social, and cultural contexts that shape the transformation of materials into objects. Between January and September, we traveled through Veracruz and Nayarit, from the Sierra Madre Oriental to the Sierra Madre Occidental, with the aim of documenting and communicating Mexico’s biodiversity and tangible and intangible cultural heritage through the materials, craftsmanship, traditional knowledge, and creative practices connected to each region. The project seeks to highlight the relationship between landscape, natural resources, cultural identity, and the objects crafted by local communities.

In Veracruz, we worked at the Centro de las Artes Indígenas (CAI) in El Tajín, a Totonac institution dedicated to preserving and transmitting the community’s cultural knowledge, arts, and traditions. We collaborated with “Casa del Algodón”, exploring cotton cultivation, natural dyeing, embroidery, and backstrap weaving, as well as “Casa del Corazón de la Madera”, where woodcarving is practiced to create ceremonial objects, masks, toys, and other pieces.

In Nayarit, we were based at the Centro de las Culturas Populares e Indígenas in Tepic. From there, we collaborated with artisans from different communities practicing basketry, leatherwork, pottery, and backstrap weaving crafts deeply rooted in the identity and natural resources of their respective territories.

As part of the project, I conducted creativity and design workshops with the artisans, sharing tools and methodologies to stimulate their creative processes and expand the possibilities of their traditional practices. These workshops became spaces for exchange and experimentation, exploring different forms and combinations of materials, colors, finishes, and applications.

The process resulted in physical samples, prototypes, and collections of utilitarian objects inspired by the materials, techniques, and landscapes of each community. The project brought together documentation, cultural research, and design experimentation to make Mexico’s material and cultural richness visible while exploring how traditional knowledge can continue to evolve through exchange.