Castropol and Bueu flower carpet artists at Guanajuato Day of the Dead festival, Digi Mart USA News (Guanajuato, Mexico): Three flower carpet artists from Asturias and Galicia traveled to Mexico to take part in one of the country’s most distinctive Day of the Dead celebrations, according to a report published by AQUÍ Diario. The Asociación Cultural El Pampillo of Castropol and the Colectivo Independiente Alfombrista of Bueu, in Pontevedra, brought their art to Guanajuato.
The celebration was the XIX International Ephemeral Art Show “El Tapete de la Muerte,” held this Monday. Maite Muiña and Asun Loriente of the Castropol collective, along with Carmen Farto, representing the Galician group, created “Un recuerdo, una flor” (“A Memory, a Flower”), a carpet of natural materials and bright colors laid out in front of the Teatro Juárez in the historic center of the city.
The work was part of a route of more than one hundred creations dedicated to the memory of the dead, made on the pavement by artists and collectives from across Mexico and other countries. Muiña said El Pampillo had participated virtually for five years, “but this year we received the wonderful invitation to cross the ocean.”
The in-person participation marks a further step in the international activity of both associations, which have collaborated on carpet-making gatherings for years. Representatives said the invitation also has a historic character because European creators were included in the competition for the first time.
The joint project was built on a simple idea: remembering those who are gone through flowers. Muiña said the title expresses “I have not forgotten you,” reflecting how affection endures after death.
The show’s carpets, made with sawdust, flowers, seeds and other materials, are deliberately temporary. They are built during the morning, remain on display until evening, and are then removed as the symbolic procession of Death ends the display.
This year’s event brought together 120 teams under the motto “Dos mundos, un instante” (“Two Worlds, One Instant”), which contrasted pre-Hispanic and Christian conceptions of death. For the Castropol and Bueu representatives, it also represented a craft tradition crossing the Atlantic to meet another way of honoring memory.
The participation extends the international reach of Castropol’s flower carpets, a tradition recognized as part of Asturias’ intangible cultural heritage. This time, the artists’ work was far from the streets of their village, among cempasúchil flowers and the colors of Mexican Day of the Dead.
The carpet was removed as planned, but the memory it was meant to represent remains.
