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Museo Morelense de Arte Popular (MMAPO)

(Folk Art Museum of Morelos)

Transforming matter, the container of nature, turning the elements into objects that alleviate the difficulties of life and that serve to honor the gods, is a process inherent to the cultures that we call folk art.

Pre-Hispanic Mexico was made up of a tremendous succession of cultures that developed beautiful creations to accompany daily and ritual life in a complexity that, despite the cultural subjugation of the conquest and colony, and alienated modernity, still flows in slight threads that the heroic indigenous survival maintains as a spiritual weapon.

The modern state of Morelos has been the scene of multiple cultural presences and violent historical transformations in which traditions and popular manifestations have been lost. Fortunately, the hands of Nahua and Mestizo people keep various crafts and techniques alive.

The present collection gives an account of expressions mostly of daily use, whose simplicity is sometimes compensated by its beauty, as in the clay of Morelos. In basketry we appreciate a rudimentary but redemptive manufacture: it connects us with the early days. The textiles, dyed the blue of twilight or the brown of the earth, give an account of his birth between the indigenous womb and a tree trunk.

The clothing with its delirious colors makes the straw and adobe of the cuexcomate seem paler, which keeps its sustenance in its entrails. The ‘cartonería’ shouts the festive veneration of the people of Morelos to the patron saints among fireworks and paroxysmal dances of King Carlomagno, the jaguar, ‘niñas moras’ and mocking devils. The flaked waxes forged during several days, accompany the prayer to the divine or the farewell to the deceased.

This museum invites the visitor to get closer to the rough touch of the creator of each piece, to the ceremony that he ennobles, to their daily use, getting closer to the ritual atmosphere. Thus, MMAPO intends to safeguard the Morelos identity, looking within our people and project abroad a wealth that deserves greater appreciation and investigation.