HALI NEWSLETTER No. 450

[View this email in your browser]( mailto:events@hali.com The 8th edition of Morocco's National Handicrafts Week will take place in Casablanca starting from 28 February 2024. As part of this event, a special rug section will be included, following the success of its inaugural appearance last year. For 2024, it will take place as a larger and more inclusive show, the Morocco Carpet & Flooring Trade Show, and will include over thirty Moroccan rug companies producing genuine, handwoven Moroccan carpets as well as tiles and flooring. Email events@hali.com for more information. Showing at the Fowler Museum at UCLA in Los Angeles, California until 7 April 2024 is this exhibition of Janyak, or needle lace: a historic craft that has connected generations of Armenians throughout multiple diasporas. The exhibition displays fourteen janyak doilies by Marie Pilibossian, an Armenian genocide survivor who emigrated to North America. Displaced Armenian women like Pilibossian 'carried this tactile tradition with them into exile and their new homes, knotting memories of survival and endurance into their lacework'. In this virtual talk, hosted by the New England Rug Society and co-sponsored by The George Washington University and The Textile Museum, Margaret Squires of the Courtauld Institute will focus on a huge 17th-century carpet woven in the Deccan, India for the Chehel Sotun palace in Esfahan, Iran. The carpet was cut up and sold piece by piece in the 19th century, and the fragments are now distributed across at least eleven collections around the world. Register below for the talk which will take place on 10 February at 6pm GMT. For the final chapter of our exploration of Moroccan pile carpets for [#RugFactFriday]( we will outline some defining features of these rugs that have been discussed over the past few weeks. - Most Moroccan rugs lack borders and feature varied designs, ranging from simplistic to bold. Recognisable designs and motifs persist over time, serving as a connection between past traditions and contemporary expressions. - Rural Moroccan rug imagery is rooted in the traditions of old Zenata Berber groups who settled in the northern Middle Atlas from the 11th century. Sanhaja Berber groups, advancing northwards from the Sahara starting in the 16th century, now inhabit large parts of the High Atlas, Middle Atlas, and East Morocco, and likely assimilating the complex techniques of the Zenata textile culture over time. - Weaving in rural Morocco was predominantly done by women for their families. Sometimes, a male or female master weaver would oversee a rug's construction, working with local weavers or their own crew. The process was marked by rituals and festivities, with visitors observing until the rug was completed and removed from the loom. Image: Rug from the Gharb plains, east of Rabat or Zaer, late 20th century. 1.15 x 1.55 m (3' 9" x 5' 1"). Gebhart Blazek collection. These rugs have been discussed in great detail in past issues of HALI. Buy a subscription to the magazine to keep up to date with new discoveries, and to access the HALI archive, which contains a bounty of articles on Moroccan pile rugs. [Buy a subscription to HALI.]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Website]( [LinkedIn]( Copyright © 2023 Hali Publications, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: HALI Publications 6 Sylvester Path London, Hackney E8 1EN United Kingdom Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. This email was sent to {EMAIL} [why did I get this?]( [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences]( Hali Publications Ltd · 6 Sylvester Path · London, England E8 1EN · United Kingdom