Senegal revives interest in traditional tapestries

As he cuts the loose woolen threads from his loom, 28-year-old Senegalese weaver Seydina Oumar Cisse watches as the tapestry gradually takes shape. From the colors to the design, everything is identical to the original work created by Senegalese artist Cheikh Diouf.

Cisse is a weaver at a decorative arts factory in Thies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality art objects in Africa. The company's creations hang on the walls of organizations around the world, from the UN headquarters in New York to the African Union in Addis Ababa.

Coline Desportes, a researcher at the National Institute of Art History in Senegal, has seen a "resurgence of interest in textiles and tapestries" on the global art market, driven by local galleries with international reputations. Fashion giants like Chanel are also interested in partnerships with Senegalese manufacturers.

In 1966, six years after Senegal gained its independence from France, Senegal's first president, poet Leopold Sedar Senghor, founded the national tapestry production in Thies to create "a new art for a new nation." After he left office in 1980, the state cut support and tapestries fell out of fashion. Production almost came to a standstill until orders picked up again in the 2000s.

In the 1960s, the art of tapestry was still little known in Senegal. Two years before production began in Thies, four young craftsmen were sent to France for special training. For Senghor, the new Senegalese art form represented "the symbiosis of techniques imported from France and traditional culture."

Working in the weaving workshops, housed in the green and white buildings of a former barracks, the weavers can't afford to make any mistakes. They meticulously follow the cardboard lines on their looms, using wool from Europe and cotton from Thies to trace their designs.

Before a tapestry is created on the loom, an artist draws a sketch for a new design. It can take up to six months from the first sketch to the finished woven tapestry — extremely demanding and time-consuming work. Artisans also produce prayer rugs, batik and ceramics, which are somewhat more affordable than the tapestries which cost the equivalent of around $2,400 (€2,200) per square meter.

The weaving workshops attract tourists and film crews from all over the world. Fourteen rooms will soon be set up for visitors, and Managing Director Aloyse Diouf also plans to set up an artists' residence. "We want to turn the manufacturers into a cultural powerhouse, a link between art and tourism," he told the AFP news agency.

"Tapestry is not necessarily linked to our history and has remained mainly elitist — it is mainly the authorities who buy tapestries to contribute to Senegal's artistic influence," said Diouf. "The ownership of this art form by the Senegalese is a long-term project that we are developing by inviting schools to visit the factories."