Miratges

The kilim designs that make up this collection were not associated with any particular region of Iran until little more than 15 years ago. For many years, single rugs would appear in remote bazaars throughout the provinces of Iran; and, in the 1970s and 1980s, many different kilim families were identified, all except the present one. Their actual origin was not discovered until the end of the 1990s, when a group of textile experts stumbled upon the cradle of these designs: Mazandaran.

Mazandaran is a rich, productive region, lying far to the north of the capital, Tehran. It is somewhat isolated from the rest of Iran by the Elburz mountains and boasts a very different environment from that found anywhere else in the country with its leafy forests and fertile fields. The region sits on the shores of the Caspian sea and historically it has enjoyed close ties with other coastal cultures, like the Georgians and the Armenians, and it has its own language and identity. Mazandaran is primarily made up of small villages scattered around a number of large cities like Amol, Sari and Behshahr.

Horizontal and vertical stripes are the defining features of the Banneh, Noor and Kiasar kilims. The abrupt visual rhythms created by these woven bands and the intermediate stitching make the process used in creating each rug clearly apparent. At the same time, their colours closely reflect the changing landscapes of the Mazandaran region.
 
It is this that has inspired the idea of displaying the kilims from the «Miratges» collection with photographs of the Mazandaran region, separate yet connected in the specific nature of their abstract forms and forming a harmonic whole. The landscapes chosen are those of the mountains of Elburz, the Caspian sea, the region’s vineyards, desert areas and city centres.