The Lady Berbère event took place in the middle of the Agafay desert, with an exhibition of Zindekh tapestries to be held from June 1 to 15, at Terre des étoiles in Marrakech. An opportunity to promote the Semnid association for the education of rural girls and thus promote the crafts of Berber women.
After having taken over the walls of the Selmane hotel and the Es Saadi palace, the Lady Berbère exhibition sets its suitcases at Terre des étoiles in the middle of the Agafay desert, with the ambition of making women artisans known to the general public but also give a boost to the Semnid association which works to support the education of rural girls between 12 and 18 years old.
“The objective of this meeting is part of the fight against dropping out of school, by creating a home or a reception center for girls from mountainous areas who do not have a boarding school or are very far from college and to allow them to settle in the center of the city of Azilal to allow them to follow their studies ”, explains at the microphone of Hespress FR, Omar Majjane, head of the association.
Same story with Stéphanie Cassan, creator of the event who emphasized the importance of helping this association.
“Through the Lady Berbère event, we wanted to support the action of Omar the director of the association and allow these young girls to open up to other activities during their free time. The profits from the sale of the Book Lady Berbère will be donated to Semnid ”, she said.
Thus, this project makes it possible to highlight the work of their mothers and grandmothers. Some learn to weave from a young age and practice creating tapestries according to their mood and taste.
Intercultural dialogue
This gallery in the desert brilliantly combines tradition and modernity, art and craftsmanship, women’s secrets and their daring visions of the world.
It is also about the meeting and the dialogue proposed between the Zindekh tapestries made by the women of the Azilal valley and the paintings of Keya, the contemporary artist, who fell in love with the work of these craftswomen. An intercultural project supported by Christophe Chaillot, director of the French Institute of Marrakech.
“This Lady Berbère project is first and foremost an intercultural dialogue between a contemporary artist and craftswomen from the Middle Atlas. This allows culture to come out of traditional walls and come to a desert to show that culture is open to all and that culture can reach out to its audience ”, explains Chaillot.
An exhibition that gives a voice to women
These women in the shadows have learned to express themselves in roundabout ways. This is the case of the embroiderers of your Zindekh pisseries that this exhibition puts in the spotlight through “Lady Berbère”.
Often isolated from the city life ruled by men, Berber women have found refuge in embroidery andexchanged messages and secrets in the grooves of their tapestries. They offered themselves a status. This status is that of true Lady.
Thanks to their resilience, they managed to create real works of art, with complex geometric shapes, and wrote codes to which men did not have access. The tapestries are so many sealed safes.
“This is a project that supports a number of associations, women who live in rural areas. It is an exhibition which puts in parallel a traditional artisanal work around the tapestry and a more modern work around an artist and especially because it is an exhibition which gives a voice to women who often have little opportunity. to do so and the objective was therefore to support them ”, underlines the Ambassador of France in Morocco, Hélène Le Gal, partner of this event.
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