WUNRN

http://www.wunrn.com

 

http://irenebrination.typepad.com/irenebrination_notes_on_a/2014/06/berber-women-of-morocco-berge-ysl.html

Website Link Includes Multiple Exhibition Photos.

 

Morocco –Berber Women & Their Culture – Art, Weaving, Jewelry, Photos, Carpets +

 

Berber history spans thousands of years across much of North Africa. This exhibit focuses specifically on Berber women from the Rif Mountains in Morocco’s north to the Sahara in the kingdom’s south and examines how their mastery of traditional arts such as weaving, jewelry, and basket making has helped sustain an ancient culture that is uniquely African and Mediterranean. The survival of a culture depends on the transmission of language, but also on certain, essentially feminine, skills, such as weaving or, in the northern region of the Kingdom, pottery.

 

Why was Berber art dismissed as "rural" by Moroccan national museums? Björn Dahlström, Curator: It is a rural art. But the Berber tribes have been fighting for the recognition of their culture, and recognizing a specificity in a country creating a modern state was not deemed possible. So, instead of defining this production as "Berber", they named it "rural" in opposition to the production that was city-oriented and therefore mostly Arab-oriented in terms of inspirations. Times have changed now, and the Berber identity and language are recognized within the new constitution of the kingdom.

 

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The Berber Museum in Paris, situated at the heart of the Majorelle Garden, beloved

property of the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, houses a collection of

Berber art.