A facsimile of the Codex Boturini or Pilgrimage Strip (Photo credit: Embassy of Mexico)

The week-long exhibit of pre-Columbian art will give the Vietnamese public a look at Mexico's ancient civilizations through a selection of archaeological replicas certified by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, including a codex of great importance. Most of the works on display are ceramic items, one of the most widespread materials in ancient Mexico.

Mexican Ambassador to Vietnam Alejandro Negrín said, "The replicas of traditional Mexican ceramics pieces are quite sophisticated, almost like sculptures and, as visitors will see, they are full of expression. Mexican ceramics are very old, very diverse because they are from many parts of Mexico and very different. For example, in one state, there's a distinctive type made from black clay, giving the ceramics their signature dark color. So it's quite particular."

The exhibit is divided into 3 groups. First is the Olmec, symbolized by a photograph of a replica Olmec head, of excellent technical workmanship.

This photograph of a piece located in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ho Chi Minh City represents the oldest civilization in Mexico. These colossal heads, originally carved in volcanic stone, represent the Olmec rulers and their power.

Replica of a Chen Mul style effigy incense burner. The descending deity is associated to the God of Maize. The Mayan culture. (Photo credit: Embassy of Mexico)

The second group contains a collection of 21 ceramic pieces from different periods and regions of ancient Mexico, the oldest from the Middle Preclassic period from 1200 to 600 BC.

This group includes an anthropomorphic pot with two faces from the Paquimé culture in northern Mexico; a group of superb figures from Jaina, in Campeche, which show the refinement and sophistication reached by the Mayan culture; and a Jaguar with wheels from Veracruz, a toy that shows a representation of the local fauna with an innovative technological element.

The last group contains a facsimile of the Codex Boturini or Pilgrimage Strip. The codices are books or pictorial documents of the great Mexican civilizations.

The Codex Boturini dates from 1535, shortly after the Spanish conquest. This codex refers to the fundamental history of the Mexica or Aztec civilization: the legendary migration of the Mexica people from Aztlan to the founding of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica Empire, where Mexico would later be located.

Replica of "Dancing Colima Dogs". Tumbas de Tiro culture. (Photo credit: Embassy of Mexico)

The edition of the codex presented in this exhibition, on amate paper, is very faithful to the original. It allows visitors to approach this ancestral story in a visual and symbolic way.

The exhibit had the curatorial advice of Dr. Laura Sotelo from the Center of Mayan Studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The exhibition will open at 11:00 a.m. next Thursday, May 22, and run through May 28 at the Hanoi Exhibition Information Center, 93 Dinh Tien Hoang Street.