introduction
February 2008 a 10-day design workshop has taken place in Fes (Morocco): selected designers and craftsmen from Morocco and the Netherlands have exchanged ideas and conducted research on the extended possibilities of their own design discipline: fabric/dessins, ceramics and silver/metal work. The aim was to create a temporary studio where designers could develop new concepts by working together. A beautiful and inspiring range of prototypes was created and presented to a selected audience during the closing seminar in Fes.
How it all started
Somewhere in the first weekend of February, Hotel Palais Jamais in Fes transformed from a luxurious classical hotel into the temporary home of a group Dutch and Moroccan designers, art directors and project managers. They all gathered in this hotel to commit fully to the Made in Fes Project: to exchange ideas and inspiration on design, to learn from each other, but above all to work together with a selected group of artisans from Fes on a prototype collection in which both east & west and craft & design would meet.
The hotel, which is located on the edge of the historical, miraculous and UNESCO-protected Medina of Fes, formed the perfect base camp to work on this assignment. Not only were the workshops of the involved artisans located in this area, the old Medina is also known as the “Mecca of crafts” - which obviously was the perfect source of inspiration for the designers.
The workshop
After a day of getting to know each other, being introduced to the artisans and each other’s background and fields of expertise, art directors Said Guidha and Hester Ezra kicked off the 10-day workshop by presenting and discussing the central theme of the workshop: the tea ceremony. This proved to be a suitable theme for this intercultural design exchange, as the tea ritual is highly celebrated in Morocco as well as in the Netherlands.
First, a process of research and creative collaboration was started. You can imagine strolling through the old Medina, which resembles a “thousand and one night fairytale”, was very inspiring for the design teams who were introduced to a rich and vivid culture of crafts, a wide range of traditional and authentic craft-techniques and pure & natural materials. During this process, the designers collected inspirational material and objects, gathered knowledge on the traditional crafts and techniques, made pictures of everything that triggered them and exchanged ideas with the artisans. They took all this evidence and experience back to the hotel, where bit-by-bit a true design studio was being formed. Subsequently, the design process commenced. Since the designers had only 10 days to create a full prototype collection, the Dutch Royal Porselyene Fles (porcelain factory) and Johan van den Acker Textile Factory, supported them by donating a set of moles and half fabricates from which they could start of. In teams or on individual base, the Dutch and Moroccan designers started to work out their ideas and sketches with the objective to each design two prototypes that would fit within the general theme of tea ceremony.
Then, a very energetic, challenging and vivid product development process was set in. In this cultural and design exchange, the designers learned a lot from each other and from the artisans, especially about traditional crafts and new material. In addition, the designers witnessed the artisans developing their design and product development skills and saw how they started to implement these new insights into their work process. This fruitful collaboration must have been the key to the main result of the workshop: the first, highly inspiring, very surprising and amazing “haute couture” collection of Made in Fes that consists of a wide range of products that all relate to the tea ritual.
Exhibition
During the closing seminar on the last day of the workshop, the Made in Fes collection was beautifully being displayed in the garden of a traditional Moroccan house (Riad) in the middle of the Medina. As such, the genuine leather bags and stools, colorful pillows, delicate carafes and teacups, and design tajines were presented to representatives of the Moroccan ministry of Tourism and Crafts, the local authorities of Fes and Amsterdam and Hassan II Foundation. In addition, the directors of the Dutch and Moroccan branch-organizations for design (BNO) and representatives of the Amsterdam Art fund (AFK), Creative City Amsterdam Area and other both Dutch and Moroccan relevant organizations came to Fes to view the Made in Fes collection. Following the presentation, the different stakeholders jointly discussed possible follow up on this first successful Made in Fes workshop. To be continued…
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Did you know there are plenty of interesting links about the Made in Fes project centralized on one website? You will find an abundance of interesting links concerning products, crafts, designers, Moroccan and Dutch culture and much more facts relevant to the Made in Fes project on this URL: http://del.icio.us/madeinfes
You can also add links yourself by logging in at http://del.icio.us/ using the account settings that we have sent you. Then simple click the "post" button in the top menu of the page. You will be asked to add a URL (website link) and additional information (description is required). After clicking the 'Save" button your link will be added and visible in the list.
