Paper short abstract:

This paper draws on my recent Brunei Gallery exhibition on Moroccan weavers to discuss the politics of translating ethnographic data and the challenges of conveying the embodied dimension of weaving practice.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws on my recent Brunei Gallery exhibition that celebrates the skills and creativity of weavers of the Sirwa, a geographically marginal Berber region of southern Morocco, where the production of carpets constitutes a major source of income which complements subsistence agriculture; women producing carpets for the international market and men marketing them. My main aim was to highlight the aesthetic and technical quality of contemporary weaving production in the Sirwa as well as the socio-economic context of production: the ethnography shows that the weavers' hard labour is unrecognized and underpaid at the level of production, whereas it is sold as art to international buyers. One challenge of the exhibition was how to convey the embodied aspects of weaving as a labour-intensive, time-consuming and, at times, painful activity. This paper discusses the politics of translating ethnographic data into an exhibition that will appeal to a wider audience but at the same time that raises issues around labour, fair trade and gender relations in contemporary Morocco.