Producers unknown to us
Women’s garment (Haik)
Africa, Morocco, Anti-Atlas, Erkoune
1900
Textile; woven, painted
Annette Korolnik-Andersch (artist) and Marcel Korolnik (media designer) acquired the women’s garment on one of their trips to Morocco
Donation to the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden by Korolnik-Andersch in 2019
87986
Women of the Feija community in Erkoune crafted this wool women’s garment around 1900. This Haik was painted on both sides to ensure the color's protective function could act from both directions. Several women likely worked on this piece simultaneously.
The central motif corresponds to the ⵣ - Z from the Tifinagh alphabet, which, through repetition, takes on the form of dancing figures. At the transition point from the script to the dance figures, additional symbols with equivalents in the Tifinagh alphabet can be seen: T, I, and S. In this way, celebrations and dances can be represented through letters, and a single letter can represent a person in its abstract form.
ⵣ generally symbolizes the free person and adheres to the prohibitions on imagery found in the Old Testament and Islamic traditions. Today, it is also recognized as a symbol of the Amazigh political movement.
Team GRASSI.SKD