One of the greatest challenges for women weaver’s in Morocco today is access to an open and fair marketplace where their textiles can be sold at a sustainable price reflective of the many hours of labor invested into each piece.

We are all familiar with the beautiful Moroccan carpets and other textiles that brighten stylish homes featured in countless magazines. Carpets come into being through the action of weavers, yet these women are INVISIBLE. Pick up almost any book about Moroccan textiles, and the blatant lack of information about the weavers is, putting it mildly, surprising. The weaver is the invisible machine, the abstract maker.

Since Artisan Project was founded in 2011, I’ve made it my mission to partner with teams that are interested in the well being of the weavers more than the textiles themselves. Caravane Earth, is one such partner whose mission to practice and promote ethical values and well being through craftsmanship, amongst other things, I am totally in line with. Since the spring of last year, I’ve been working on a project that involves sourcing crafts and building relationships with craftspeople throughout Morocco for a hand-crafted village inspired by desert communities. This village, will live during the winter and spring seasons in the desert of Qatar.

Our recent focus was to work with weavers on making the textile panels that will cloak the bamboo prototype as well as rugs for the interior. Designed by award winning architects Simon Velez and Stefana Simic, this bamboo structure called ‘Majlis’ (which means meeting place in Arabic) will be exhibited -fingers crossed - during the 2020 Venice Biennale 27 August - 29 November.  

Majlis at La Biennale di Venezia How will we live together?

Caravane is preparing for the 17th International Architecture Biennale Di Venezia 2020 by showing The Majlis, the first building of the Caravane Village. Read More

https://caravane.earth/