Months and then years passed, and the success of Tucurinca significantly contributed to the proliferation of plastic-woven chairs that now saturate local markets. From Mercadolibre to the corners of our own neighborhood. Some are better than others, and it’s not wrong to say that most of them want to be like ours. Almost all of them are cheaper, many because they are not well made, others because they are made on the streets, and most do not contribute to the pockets of the DIAN (Colombian tax authority).
Quality and formality come at a cost, and I feel it more every day. In the end, it’s the path of responsibility we chose, formalizing and contributing to the betterment of the lives of everyone who works here.
At first, it made me very angry to see copies of the colors, weaves, and shapes that I have been marinating and collecting in chairs and thoughts throughout this journey. Here, I wanted to create a Tucurinca different from the others. I called this one Mamatoco. It was a Tucurinca with the essentials, without too many frills, a Tucurinca that was affordable and could compete with the imitators.
That was the idea behind Mamatoco. Tucurinca is a town, and Mamatoco is a neighborhood. Not just any neighborhood, but the neighborhood where Simón Bolivar died. Mamatoco’s journey was different; it competed with Tucurinca and charted its course. The MoMA in New York chose Mamatoco to feature in its store, making it the first piece of Colombian furniture to grace its shelves. In this way, Mamatoco proudly surpassed its master without leaving behind its simple and colorful origins, much like Colorinche.
Today, Mamatoco evolves and transforms. It is a chair that works well for everything, and I say it’s more comfortable than Tucurinca. Today, Mamatoco has become a chair for innovation, a chair by the man from Tucurinca, with colorful structures, simple weaves, and new combinations. Here comes Mamatoco SUPER, which is the same story in new forms, and I envision future explorations of what our coastal chair can be.
Text and photography by Rafael Zúñiga //@pase_bonito
