The artistic culture of the Mari of the Urals is considered in the article in the aspect of the translation of cultural identity, the methodological basis of such an approach is substantiated. This is the ethnocultural code of artistic creativity, both traditional and modern. As a confirmation of theoretical and methodological reflections, artifacts of folk-art culture and contemporary art of the Mari of the Urals provided in the article. Today, the artistic culture of the Ural mountains models varieties of modern and future reality, which requires knowledge of the intentionality of the history of the development of ethno-cultural identity for its understanding. Art culture is an imaginary reality, idealizing the exciting aspects of living space. Accepting an imaginary reality changes an individual's perception of the world and, consequently, their response to the challenges of life. Thus, the practices of artistic culture today not only testify to cultural identity, but also influence the formation of a real effective world of their ethnic culture. The paper shows that globalization itself, neither mass culture, nor socio-political upheavals in the late XX - th-early XXI centuries did not become an obstacle for the artistic culture of the Mari people of the Urals in the implementation of the most important function: to be a translator of their own cultural identity.