Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
From his family workshop in the town of Pátzcuaro in the Mexican state of Michoacán, Mario Agustín crafts religious icons and lavishly adorned plates from organic materials. Using local plants, mineral soil, cochineal insects and even cow urine to create unique materials and brilliant pigments, his crafts combine indigenous techniques dating back as far as 500 BCE with methods from the colonial era to create distinctly Mexican works of art. Part of the Mexican director Mariano Rentería Garnica’s Mexican Handcraft Masters short documentary series on artisans in Michoacán, this short portrait captures how Agustín keeps inherited knowledge alive through his work.
video
Design and fashion
The mundane becomes mesmerising in this deep dive into segmented displays
14 minutes
video
Physics
A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet
9 minutes
video
Architecture
Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China
16 minutes
video
Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
6 minutes
video
Thinkers and theories
Photographs offer a colonialist window to the past – one that must be challenged
14 minutes
video
Animals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
5 minutes
video
Mathematics
How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever
9 minutes
video
Cities
The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith
18 minutes
video
Art
Inside the unique creative space where ‘outsider’ artists find their form
14 minutes