São Paulo – Comprising roughly 100 items ranging from photos to furniture, jewellery, fabrics and decorative objects, the exhibition “Morocco, All Senses” will take place in Porto Alegre from August 25th until September 13th. The exhibition will present to the audience the result of art consultant Giselle Custódio’s trips to the North African country, in 2010 and 2011.
“I have a passion for African culture. Morocco is a very rich country, with many contrasts, where the ocean, mountains and the desert meet, a huge array of colours,” says Giselle. She explains that her trips were based around the city of Marrakech, but that she travelled to the High Atlas Mountains, through the desert, to Taroudant, Agadir and Tiznit.
Giselle went to Morocco six times to collect objects, meaning precisely to put together an exhibition about the country. “They are meant to show the audience here that Morocco is a land filled with emotion,” she says. “There, you will find a different emotion each time, in the handicraft, the jewellery, which is very rich, in both silver and gold, and there are also the fabric-dyeing vats etc.,” she adds.
Regarding what led her to Marrakech specifically, she reveals that she went there to get to know the collection of French designer Yves Saint Laurent. “He has an incredible story with Morocco. The first time he went to the country, after ten days he bought a house there,” she says. The house, located in the Majorelle Garden, Morocco’s finest, now hosts a museum.
Among the foremost items in the exhibition, Giselle highlights her taste for the jewellery. “My focus is on the jewellery, I have some embroidered items made by Berber tribes, as well as fabrics,” she says. She also calls attention to other aspects that have attracted her attention during her travels to the country. “The people’s spirituality is amazing, and the Moroccan handicraft is very rich. In architecture, there is a heavy Spanish and French influence,” she says.
Morocco is the first Arab country Giselle organizes an exhibition about. She has put together exhibitions about France and Italy. Visitors will also find the Henna Space, featuring a traditional Moroccan art, and including a professional to tattoo the public. After Porto Alegre, there are plans for the exhibition, which has support from the Moroccan embassy, to be featured in Rio de Janeiro.
Service
Morocco, All Senses
Place: Jasmin Mac-Jasmin Tapetes Carpet Store
Av. Carlos Gomes, 1361 – Porto Alegre-Rio Grande do Sul
Mondays to Saturdays from 09:00 am to 06:30 pm
Admittance free
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum