There are more and more brotherhoods buying mantles, sizes and goldsmiths in Southeast Asia

At the beginning of the year, a group of faithful gave A blue velvet mantle embroidered in gold To the Virgin of Los Angeles de Morón de la Frontera. The idea of ​​the group was for the image to use during its processional exits and the brotherhood of the sovereign power of the town received it willingly.

Then the controversy exploded: the mantle They had done it in a Bangladés workshop.

Sacred art in Bangladés? This same week, the Sacred Art Associations of Andalusia have launched a statement in which alert proliferation of brotherhood goods “carried out by workshops located in foreign countries such as Pakistan or Bangladesh that not only have low quality but are the result of the plagiarism of work that these artisans.”

There are two great reasons for it. The first (and this will not surprise anyone) is money: as calculated at that timethe mantle of the Virgen de los Ángeles would have cost three times more if it had been done in a Spanish workshop.

As the associations explainfor years the Cofrade world has been suffering “incessant bombardment (of advertising of) alleged companies that commit to brown pieces, particularly embroidered to the Sevillian stive, in addition to cordonerías, homiatures and galaonerías.” Usually, using “photographs of pieces that we have created” with the aim of trying to confuse the client.

They also promise to do it quickly. Because that is the second reason: time. As it seems, of the Three years on average It takes to make a mantle here is a few months.

A problem goes beyond embroidery … According to Andalusian artisans, the problem “also” affects other disciplines such as wood size, gold or goldsmiths. ” And, of course, it is the order of the day in products of less artistic interest such as robes, layers, cingles and other belongings.

The pressure is huge.

… and that is ceasing to be a taboo. What has begun to change in recent years is that the brotherhoods are stopping hiding. The clearest example is the brotherhood of the clemency of Jerez de la Frontera. The brotherhood commissioned the design of the mantle From the Virgin of Health and Hope to a Sevillian designer (Carmelo Argumedo), but the piece was made in Pakistan.

In addition, the brotherhood did not hide, The advances by videoconference followed and has caused an effect called among other brotherhoods of the community.

What is happening with Holy Week? It is still curious that, As José Luis Losa pointed out in El ConfidencialLast year the Ministry of Culture granted one of the Fine Arts Medals to the Sacred Art Association of Seville for one “History of more than six centuries in which all trades related to sacred art have been maintained uninterruptedly, magnifying artistic heritage.”

And it’s normal. Holy Week does not stop growing so much in social weight as in economic and political weight: It is logical that he suffers the same pressures as the rest of the world’s social phenomena. The Great Pegag is where that takes us and, it seems, the first station is in Southeast Asia.

Image | Alfredo José Ortiz Garcia | Hamid Roshaan

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