Aït Manos launches its new Art Deco zellige collection
Innovation and imagination linked to the ancestral values of Moroccan zelliges manufacture structure the production of the Aït Manos house. Shaped by the eloquence of geometries that are repeated ad infinitum, the Art Deco collection sprinkled with 18-carat gold springs from the workshops like a hymn to preciousness.
Aït as in "tribe", manos as in "hands". Aït Manos means "the tribe of hands". In the workshops of Casablanca, the tribe brings together the protagonists of a secular know-how. First of all, the earth. The raw material of zellige, it has always been clay, beaten by hand and worked on the ground. Then the maâlem, literally "the one who knows", the master craftsman zelliger, virtuoso in the field of size and assemblies. Aït Manos was born from the meeting of Tawfik Bennani and Ghalia Sebti, two lovers of Morocco and the decorative arts. In 1995, they embarked with faith on the adventure of zellige, which tells the story of the Kingdom of Morocco since the 10th century like no other.
"Tata", a reference to the metallic ornaments characteristic of the architecture of the 1920s in Casablanca.
Glazed terracotta mosaics of all colours offer an inexhaustible repertoire. Its varied decorations, its geometric forms multiplied to infinity engrave a memory of excellence. The cosmopolitan cultural mix of Casablanca has always shaped a rich and diversified architectural heritage. The new creation orchestrated by Tawfik Bennani is called Art Deco. A collection that reinterprets the motifs of the neo-Moorish aesthetic of the early 20th century, of which a discerning eye can still pick up snippets in the streets of the white city.
Like a tangram, "Talet" composes random figures.
In the Art Deco collection of Aït Manos, the "Goulmine" model sublimates the codes of Moorish art.
It is this story woven into the architecture that these mosaic fragments tell by combining geometry, sophistication and chromatic simplicity. Six different motifs adorned with 18-carat gold, black and Carrara white become contemporary accounts of a part of the past. Challenge and invention come together in this precious series. "Our joy is innovation. We have developed a third firing glaze, in 18-carat gold, the result of research work in our colour laboratories, to perpetuate know-how, while remaining authentic in terms of handmade."
Aït Manos revolutionises form and content; its zelliges travel the world. For innovation also means working behind the scenes with pre-assembled panels that are light, thin and easy to lay. Thus, raw clay and perfect gold, hand in hand, sketch a new eternity.
Golden triangle for the floral-inspired "Zayane" pattern.
In black, Carrara white and 18-carat gold, the dynamic shapes of "Tichka" encrust gold in a positive-negative visual game
