From the workshops of the Atlas Mountains to the Venice Biennale, Moroccan women are transforming traditional weaving into contemporary art. Their growing international visibility raises questions about cultural ownership, recognition and who benefits financially when inherited craft becomes a global commodity.
In the villages of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, weaving is more than a way of making carpets. It is a language of memory, identity and knowledge, passed between generations of women through patterns, colours and techniques that carry the histories of the communities that produce them.
For centuries, women have worked with wool, plant fibres and natural dyes to create textiles for domestic use, ceremonies and trade. Their designs often reflect the landscapes, beliefs and social experiences of Amazigh communities, whose cultural traditions remain an important part of Morocco’s identity.
Today, those techniques are finding new expression in contemporary art galleries, architectural installations and international exhibitions. What was once regarded primarily as traditional craft is increasingly being presented as an artistic practice capable of challenging conventional distinctions between fine art, design and cultural heritage.
One of the artists at the centre of this transition is Moroccan multidisciplinary artist Amina Agueznay, whose work explores the relationship between material, memory, architecture and traditional knowledge.
Her collaborative practice brings contemporary artistic ideas into conversation with the skills of Moroccan craftspeople, many of them women whose expertise has developed outside formal art institutions.
The scale of that collaboration became particularly visible in Asǝṭṭa, Morocco’s official national pavilion project at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Curated by Meriem Berrada, the installation brought together 166 craftspeople and incorporated wool, raffia and embroidered threads into an immersive architectural environment.
The project represents a significant moment for Moroccan craft traditions. Rather than treating weaving as a decorative element added to contemporary art, it places the knowledge and labour behind the materials at the centre of the artistic experience.
It also raises a question that extends beyond the exhibition: when traditional knowledge becomes internationally celebrated contemporary art, who receives the recognition and who captures the economic value?
Morocco’s weaving traditions are closely connected to Amazigh communities across the Atlas Mountains and other regions. Techniques and designs vary between communities, with differences in materials, colours, patterns and methods reflecting local histories and environments.
The Middle Atlas is particularly associated with woollen textiles, including Beni Ourain rugs, traditionally made from undyed wool and characterised by geometric designs. In the High Atlas and around Taznakht, women produce textiles using distinctive regional patterns and weaving techniques.
These traditions have historically been sustained through domestic production and local exchange. Women acquire skills through observation and practice, often learning from mothers, grandmothers and other female relatives. The loom becomes a place where technical knowledge and cultural memory are transmitted together.
But the contemporary art world operates according to different rules. Galleries, museums and collectors place value on artistic authorship, conceptual originality, exhibition history and institutional recognition.
The challenge for artists such as Agueznay is to create a space in which traditional craftsmanship can enter this world without losing its connection to the people and communities that sustain it.
Her practice provides an example of how contemporary art can be developed through collaboration rather than treating craft as an anonymous source of inspiration.
That distinction matters in a country where traditional artistic production is frequently associated with tourism and commercial design. A handmade rug may be valued as a household object in one market and exhibited as an artwork in another, even when the techniques and labour involved are closely related.
The difference is not necessarily in the material. It is often in the context, authorship, presentation and institutions that determine how the work is understood.
The economics behind a centuries-old craft
The financial pressures facing traditional weavers are visible in Taznakht, a town in southern Morocco known for its Ouaouzguit carpets.
An Associated Press report published by Africanews in July 2025 documented the work of the Aguiness rug cooperative, an all-female workplace where artisans process wool, prepare dyes and weave carpets on traditional wooden looms. The Women’s Centre for the Promotion of the Taznakht Carpet brings together 35 cooperatives representing approximately 3,500 women and has the capacity to produce up to 300 carpets a month. Africanews
The work is labour-intensive. Artisans wash and spin wool before weaving it into intricate patterns. Depending on the size and complexity of a carpet, production can take several weeks or months. Traditionally, natural dyes have been extracted from materials including henna, pomegranate peel, saffron and indigo.
Yet the cultural significance of the work does not necessarily translate into strong earnings.
An AFP report describes how some weavers in Taznakht sold large rugs for around 250 Moroccan dirhams, approximately $25 at the time. Similar rugs could subsequently be offered in Marrakech at prices as much as ten times higher, while some online listings reached thousands of dollars. These examples illustrate the potential gap between payments to makers and retail prices, although the products, quality and sales arrangements differ.
The problem is not simply that intermediaries exist. Traders, exporters and retailers provide transport, storage, marketing and access to customers. The concern is that individual weavers may have little bargaining power when selling their work, particularly if they lack direct access to buyers.
For women who depend on weaving for household income, accepting a low price may be preferable to keeping an unsold carpet. But when the work takes weeks, small payments can make the craft less attractive to younger generations.
Cooperatives offer one possible response. By organising production and sales collectively, they can help women reach buyers more directly and negotiate terms. Their success, however, depends on access to markets, working capital, reliable orders and the ability to communicate the value of handmade work to customers.
The challenge facing Moroccan weaving is therefore both cultural and economic: preserving a tradition requires making it financially viable.
The growing visibility of Moroccan textiles in contemporary art offers another route for recognising the makers behind the work.
In Marrakech in 2025, Dutch-Moroccan designer Mina Abouzahra presented The Soul of a Rug, an exhibition that brought the weaving traditions of Taznakht into Bahia Palace. The project incorporated a virtual-reality installation that allowed visitors to experience aspects of the weavers’ working lives and production process.
The approach highlights a wider shift in how craft is presented. Rather than displaying a finished carpet as an isolated object, exhibitions can reveal the labour, knowledge and relationships involved in its production.
Amina Agueznay’s work takes this idea into the realm of contemporary installation. Her Asǝṭṭa project at the 2026 Venice Biennale used hanging wool panels, raffia and embroidery to transform weaving into an immersive architectural experience. The installation was developed through collaboration with 166 craftspeople across Morocco, most of them women.
Agueznay’s work is significant because it positions the making process as part of the artwork’s meaning. The installation draws on the Amazigh idea of ritual weaving, connecting material, memory and the transmission of knowledge.
It also challenges a familiar hierarchy in which an individual artist receives institutional recognition while the craftspeople who produce the work remain less visible.
But visibility alone is not the same as economic empowerment. Exhibition fees, wages, attribution, travel opportunities and future commissions determine whether participation creates lasting benefits for the makers. The precise financial arrangements behind individual projects need to be examined rather than assumed.
Preserving the knowledge, not just the patterns
The future of Moroccan weaving depends on more than keeping traditional designs in museums or reproducing them for international buyers.
It requires the continued transmission of skills, from preparing wool and operating looms to understanding regional motifs and the meanings attached to them. When experienced weavers stop working without younger people learning their techniques, the loss extends beyond a product: communities risk losing a body of knowledge developed over generations.
Contemporary art can help make that knowledge visible to new audiences. Museums and galleries can create demand for work that might otherwise be overlooked, while designers can help artisans develop products for changing markets.
However, there is a risk that commercial demand will encourage the simplification of traditional patterns or turn culturally significant designs into generic luxury decoration. Preserving craft therefore requires listening to the communities that sustain it, respecting their knowledge and ensuring they have a say in how their work is represented.
The most promising collaborations are those in which artisans are treated as skilled creative partners, not merely as suppliers of labour or raw materials.
That means recognising individual makers where possible, documenting regional traditions accurately, negotiating fair compensation and creating opportunities for artisans to participate in decisions about the work.
Morocco’s women weavers are increasingly present in conversations about contemporary art, design and cultural heritage. Their work is reaching international exhibitions and new markets, while artists such as Agueznay are demonstrating how traditional materials and collaborative practices can shape contemporary artistic expression.
The central challenge is to ensure that this recognition reaches beyond exhibition walls.
A carpet can become a luxury object, a textile can become an installation, and a traditional technique can become the focus of an international cultural conversation. But the future of the craft still depends on the women who know how to make it.
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Mohd Hassan has extensive experience in news gathering, editing, and writing for the newswire industry, Contact – Info@impactnews-wire.com
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