When the gourds — Manuel Díaz Tufinio

Exhibition photographs @ Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City, 2019.

When the gourds stopped being round in San Pedro Chichicasco

Lagenaria Siceraria (Molina) Standl
Variable sizes
2018 - 2019

The first part of this project is a collection of objects resulting from interventions in the natural growth process of the gourds. After understanding the taxonomy of the sub-species of this fruit, I manipulated its natural growth to look for new sculptural expressions.

My intention was that each piece expresses its characteristics through its dimensions and material properties; therefore, my role as designer was to modify and play with the natural growth of gourds, but not to limit or standardize it.

The second part of this project was to share this knowledge through workshops for children and adults. My main goal was that the people from the community of San Pedro Chichicasco, who are familiar with the gourd in its round, curved, or elongated forms, could make use of this fruit in other ways.

The project intends that, in the future, the community, through its own inventiveness and need, may reinvent the use of this fruit.

Photos of the natural process of growth of the ‘guajes’ or gourds. It can be seen since a very early phase, the shape that this vegetable will have.
Photographs by Pau Nova

One gourd, left on a pedestal at the front, was displayed without any intervention, allowing visitors to observe the various possibilities stemming from subtle interventions.

The experiments, distinguished by their green hue, were suspended to complete the drying process.