Biodiseño MX: Living Territories Explores Mexican Biodesign at Museo Franz Mayer

Biodiseño MX: Living Territories, an exhibition curated by Taina Campos, brings together more than 74 works by over 60 designers, artists, and collectives at Mexico City’s Museo Franz Mayer. The show examines how living systems can participate in creative processes, merging ancestral Mexican knowledge with contemporary biomaterial research. The exhibition is organized into five thematic sections — Flora, Fauna, Microbia, Funga, and Bioinspiration — each exploring different aspects of biodesign.

Key facts

Five thematic sections map the biodesign landscape

The exhibition’s structure mirrors the biological kingdoms it draws from. Flora focuses on plants as collaborators, presenting bioplastics and plant-fiber textiles alongside traditional crafts. Fauna highlights interactions between humans and animals, including pollinator refuges, insect-derived pigments, and bioceramic sculptures made from human ashes that aid coral reef restoration. Microbia explores microscopic organisms, with projects using bacteria, fungi, and algae to create materials such as bacterial cellulose textiles and bioluminescent designs. Funga examines the diversity of fungi in sustainable material practices, from mycelium-based materials to traditional medicinal and ritual uses. Bioinspiration looks at how collaborative and regenerative processes in nature can inform alternative approaches to sustainable living.

Museography made from recycled materials and Oaxacan soils

The exhibition design, by Manuel Díaz Tufinio, transforms the museum interior into a mountainous landscape referencing Mexico’s varied topography. Walls are finished with Mixterra’s clay-based coatings made from Oaxacan soils, which help regulate temperature and humidity while echoing traditional Mexican construction techniques. Display modules are produced from New Fibers panels made from 100 percent recycled and recyclable LDPE, sourced from post-industrial laminated cardboard waste, including beverage cartons and food packaging. Recyclable materials such as Polyroca are used to construct the mountainous forms, integrating the exhibition’s ecological message into its physical presentation.

Ancestral knowledge meets contemporary biodesign

A central thread of the exhibition is the dialogue between ancestral Indigenous knowledge and modern design. Visitors encounter traditional costumes made from biological materials, masks from the Ruth D. Lechuga collection that reference rituals celebrating harvest seasons, and works by Fernando Laposse, such as “Patachón,” a light sculpture crafted from agave fibers. Emiliano Godoy, Edith Medina, Javier Senosiain, and the collective Resting Reef are also featured. Curator Taina Campos notes that the exhibition invites visitors to abandon extractive logics and embrace a future where the memory of the territory expresses itself through design.

Why this matters for sustainable design

For architects, designers, and material researchers, Biodiseño MX: Living Territories offers a model for integrating biodesign with cultural heritage. The exhibition positions living systems not only as sources of material or inspiration but as active participants in the design process. By showcasing works that use bacterial cellulose, mycelium, soil-based pigments, and waste-derived bioceramics, the show expands the vocabulary of sustainable materials while grounding them in the traditions of Mexico’s Indigenous communities. The exhibition is currently on view at Museo Franz Mayer.

— Paionia7

Source: Designboom, “exhibition brings biomaterials and mexican ancestral design together at museo franz mayer” – https://www.designboom.com/design/exhibition-biomaterials-mexican-ancestral-design-museo-franz-mayer-biodiseno-mx-territorios-vivos/