Boucherouite ("Rag rug")

Morocco, central High Atlas, Berber. Here, carpets are hardly woven any more in the traditional manner. Discarded synthetic fibres from second-hand fabrics and artificial materials have replaced sheep's wool and goat hair. The young weavers have forgotten how to spin a uniform thread. After the spinning work is done, the warp threads are no longer ritually "cut off" from the weaving stool. More recently, the weavers have also been employing recyclable and non-tearable plastic bags of polypropylene, in which they embroider their patterns. Small-format rugs and saddlecloths are produced, at first for their own use. Later they appear out of thin air in the carpet bazaar in Marrakesh, where they are given the label Boucherouite ("rags"). By now, they are offered for sale in Europe and the United States in the relevant art and textile galleries for a great deal of money.