Guatemala furnishes its pavilion at the exhibition with a "handmade weaving garden"

From the "Land of Trees" to the "Expo" visitors... an invitation embroidered with "birds embracing roses"

• Weaving traditional clothing takes approximately 6 months to make one piece.

  Cinematography: Mostafa Qassemi

• A masterpiece of embroidery art paints an exquisite painting woven with threads and natural colors.

• The pavilion features the tallest Mayan sculpture.

• Hangings of paintings within the suite's holdings.

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Guatemala, whose name means “the land of trees”, furnished its pavilion at “Expo 2020 Dubai” with a group of comfortable sofas with exquisite embroidery, which turned with its threads that painted beautiful images of nature, each of those seats into a painting that lit up the corridors and corners of the place where it was located. It overlooks the visitors of the World Exhibition with a garden of hand-woven fabric that is dazzling in its colors, designs and diversity.

The Central American country, which has the longest carved rock painting in the Mayan civilization, chose the textile and embroidery that characterize the culture and heritage of Guatemala to be a title in inviting the visitor and hosting him to learn about the culture and heritage of a people and land in which human presence dates back to at least 12,000 years.

Not a coincidence

The choice of embroidery and textile art as an essential element in the design of the pavilion did not come by chance, as the textile industry, which still maintains the production of pieces of traditional dress decorated with hand embroidery, is one of the most important business sectors in the country and a source of livelihood for a large proportion of the population of villages and rural areas, despite the development of Guatemala for a large number of Modern industries in mining, food and agricultural crops, as well as the timber industry.

The information in the pavilion shows that usually the home furnishings of seats, beds and others are not embroidered with traditional embroidery, but this was done in this country’s pavilion at the “Expo” due to the embroidery that reflects the diverse cultural heritage in the nature of this country, and the culture of its people affected by Spanish colonialism for several centuries .

The embroidery panels that painted the sofa cushions with pictures of tapestry in which birds and roses embraced, and the picturesque scenes and colors of nature in more than 20 seats decorated the sides of the pavilion, can be read with an understanding of the cultural diversity to which the Guatemalan people belong, which is reflected in every textile formation.

Each of these embroidered panels varies in its details of lines and images, according to the region in which it was made. Each style is part of every region in Guatemala, in some of which men wear traditional costumes that include special hats, knee-high trousers and bird-print fabrics. The seats are decorated with hand embroidery using natural threads that are also naturally colored from plant sources, such as the red and yellowish-red color extracted from the husk of the seeds of the Annatto tree, or the cochineal dye extracted from the female cochineal bug, for which these countries are famous, as well as the dye of the sumac tree. The dye of the pulp of the tree and other natural sources of dye.

Guatemalans are among the few peoples in the world that still wear traditional clothes in many parts of their clothing today. Guatemala.

It takes women about six months to be able to manually sew what is known as the “webel” on a loom, and the “webile” is the traditional shirt distinguished by its intense embroidery and interweaving of threads, which the women wear over skirts or pants.

The weavers spend several hours a day weaving the panels to make the "webiles", which leads to the conclusion that each piece of embroidery in the Guatemalan pavilion at the "Expo" took months of effort to produce these unique paintings.

Archaeological site

Guatemala's pavilion introduces the culture of this country through a set of pictures, including what is reported about the archaeological site known as Quirigua, an ancient archaeological site of the Mayan civilization in the province of Izabal in the southeast of this country.

It extends for nearly three square kilometers along the bottom of the Motagua River.

Quirigua was historically located on several important trade routes, and is famous for its architectural styles and sculptures dating back to the last centuries BC, including a 10.6-meter-long sculpture, considered the longest painting of the Classical period in the Mayan civilization.

• 10.6 meters, the length of the rock carving, which is the longest painting in the Mayan civilization, and is housed in the Quirigua site in Guatemala.

Fine work and jewelry

The Guatemala Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai gives a space for contemporary Guatemalan artists to display a group of exquisite handicrafts, including oil paintings painted on murals, seats and pendants, as well as antiques of statues and works of fine art, in addition to a unique collection of fashion and jewelry.