Fez — Moroccan zellige, Colombian craft, contemporary furniture, and experimental design came together high above Casa Anfa this week for “Beyond Craft,” a curatorial installation by Yasmine Bennani.
The installation opened on October 6 on the 15th floor of one of Yasmine Signature’s Tours Végétales in Casablanca. It gathered designers, artists, and craft traditions from Morocco and abroad around one central idea: heritage does not survive through preservation alone. It also evolves through collaboration.
The evening began with “Craft as a Creative Force – The Art of Collaboration,” a conversation bringing together two approaches rooted in different continents.
Morocco meets Colombia through craft
From Colombia came Ana María Calderón Kayser, co-founder and creative director of Ames Vibrant Living, a furniture and homeware brand launched in 2006.
Ames develops its collections through long-term collaborations between Colombian artisans and international designers, translating natural materials and inherited techniques into contemporary objects.
Morocco was represented by artist and designer Samir Mazer, co-founder of Ateliers Zelij.
Mazer has spent more than two decades reworking zellige beyond its conventional ornamental role. His practice explores relief, reflected light, hand-made irregularities, and even variations produced during firing.
Ateliers Zelij has similarly built its work around traditional production in Fez while pushing the material toward sculpture and contemporary design. The Arab World Institute Design Prize recognized the studio in 2025 in the contemporary crafts category.
For “Beyond Craft,” Mazer presented three recent pieces: “Palimpsest” from the “Traces” collection, the sculptural totem “YasMin,” and “Pliage N°5” from the “Pliage” series.
“The point is not to oppose two models, but to understand what is created when the gestures, memory, and intelligence of these communities meet new artistic and creative visions,” Bennani said.
For the Casablanca curator and interior designer, Morocco and Colombia offered an especially meaningful pairing because both carry deeply rooted craft traditions.
Craft becomes part of the room
The conversation continued through the installation itself.
Bennani placed Mazer’s work alongside Moroccan creators including Nadia Squalli, Studio Sana Benzaitar, Fatima Zohra Akhamal, and Studio Myroc. International names included Oskar Zieta, Sebastian Herkner, Xavier Lust, Philippe Malouin, and Francesco Meda.
Rather than separating furniture, artworks, and objects into individual displays, “Beyond Craft” presented them within designed environments.
That approach reflects the broader philosophy of Inspiration Design BY, the Casablanca gallery Bennani founded after a career in investment banking and consulting. The gallery opened around the idea of combining contemporary furniture, decorative arts, and interior design within curated spaces.
In “Beyond Craft,” that format becomes part of the argument.
A zellige piece is not simply treated as a preserved craft object. A woven object is not reduced to evidence of tradition. Each piece enters a contemporary interior, where inherited knowledge can interact with new materials, functions, and artistic ideas.
The result positions craftsmanship not as a fixed category from the past, but as a source from which new design can continue to emerge.
