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    Melikian Collection > Collections > Artworks > Collector's Favorites > Seven Issues of La Jicara Artisanal Magazine


MATERIAL: Paper
TYPE: Magazine
COMPONENTS: Numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Joined sheets of brown kraft paper accordion-folded to create double-sided pages, paged front to back and then back to front on verso, with offset and silkscreen printing; most includes artisanal envelopes.
CONDITION: Very good condition.
NOTES: You have to see these magazines! They are like nothing you have seen before. Some issues of this collection are really really hard to find - of the first numbers only a few were made (of the first issue only 200).
ITEM ID: 4423
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Seven Issues of La Jicara Artisanal Magazine

DATE
Decade: 1990s
Century: 21st (2001-2100)
Notes: 1992- 1997

A set of artisanal magazines made by a community of Mayan artists in Chiapas.

They are much more than a journal, they are authentic pieces of art. The texture of the papers, the use of different exotic materials, etc. makes them recognized as one of the most beautiful Mexican magazines! These magazines are probably one of the best modern expressions of folk art that Mexico currently has to offer.

ARTISTS
Name: Chan K'in; Gertrude Duby Blom; Gitte Dæhlin; K'in Bor; Nuk García; et al.
Type: Artist
Artist Information: Members of the Taller Lenateros - Mayan Cooperative of Paper Makers and Artists of Nature, a community of Mayan artists in Chiapas, Mexico. The workshop claims to rescue ancient Mayan practices in the making of the current magazines, the production of the paper and even on the printing. The methods of printing includes: serigraph, woodcuts, and even others indigenous methods such as chancla and elotegrafía. The editors of the magazine wrote about La Jicara: “In 1992 work began on ‘La jicara’ (The Gourd), a literary, artistic and historical journal to preserve and promote Mayan culture. From the start it was decided to publish only historical documents and material either created for the journal or never before published. A trial edition (Number "zero") of 200 copies was released in 1992 with selections of Chiapas literature and artwork from the Tzeltal potters of Amatenango. Ambar proudly recalls, ‘the copies lasted ten minutes’. The first ‘official’ issue (Number 1) of 400 copies came out in 1994 and those copies were quickly snapped up as well. Issue Number 2, on the theme ‘Chiapas 1994’ carried this note in the colophon: ‘we don't even know how it was done, but there are 700 of these’. Future issues would grow to 1,000 copies and explore the topics of witchcraft (‘this codex was found by Taller Lenateros in the Lacandon jungle’), Chiapas de Corzo (celebrating the poets, writers and lacquerware artists who live on Chiapas de Corzo street in San Cristobal), the artists and writers of Oaxaca (a neighboring state), and the stories and designs of the Lacandon jungle”.