WORKSHOP with Mariana Castillo Deball: In Tlilli in Tlapalli

Take part in a workshop by Mariana Castillo Deball about the materiality and the meaning of the colors of the Florentine Codex, a 16th-century encyclopedia of knowledge compiled by the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún, written and painted by indigenous Tlacuilos.

In research done by amongst others curator and researcher Diana Magaloni, the chemical and conceptual study of the colors in the Florentine Codex have revealed that the composition and origin of the tinctures and pigments define the meaning of the images.

Through the materiality of color, Deball refers to the images in relation to the Nahua concept of ixiptla (substitute, representative, image). The ixiptla concept derives from the particle xip: skin. Deball considers pigments as the skin of images; the colors make them recognizable and powerful presences. Hence, the painting of the codices and maps were a manner of repainting/making the world emerge after the conquest.

This workshop is presented, in collaboration with Master Fine Art Piet Zwart Institute, in the context of Mariana Castillo Deball, a solo exhibition.