Ateliers Zelij
Design by Samir Mazer
SAMIR MAZER
Artist Author
“Preservation is not enough for a culture to stay alive, it must also be re-invented”
Born in 1966 in Morocco, Samir Mazer is an artist who has kept from his sculpture studies a fascination for the poetry of materials. This is how zellige, a thousand-year-old terracotta tile inseparable from Arab-Andalusian heritage, has become his main vector of expression to create rhythmic patterns and unique compositions.
By inventing his own language, he re-interprets an abstract and enigmatic geometry beyond conventional codes. Plastic and sensual, clay is thus questioned in its sole production base, an 11 x 11 cm square matrix, to reveal its essence.
Breaking with traditional forms, playing with shapes and contrast until looking for an accident, Samir Mazer experiments with infinite geometric and chromatic combinations while preserving the richness of ancestral gestures.
He weaves his own history and transcends the rules to give birth to his unique contemporary creations.
THE R&D STUDIO
Cultivate our difference and constantly challenge our creativity!
Our confidential Research & Development studio is hidden in the very center of Toulouse and directed by Samir Mazer.
Drawings, collages, folds or even casts are all ways to study shapes, dissect them, deform them or even modulate them like notes on music paper. The nuances offered by zelliges are a melting pot for composing our chromatic universes and the workshop is a real playground where hundreds of trials in the form of a puzzle wait patiently in lockers.
An extraordinary experimental theater, the workshop sees the birth of new collections, unique pieces and collaborations ass Shimenawa Collection, result of a deep and exciting dialogue with creative agency Ombre, co-founded by Victor Fleury Ponsin & Jean Michel Bourillot.
It keeps also many other secrets.. contact us to talk about your project and imagine together your bespoke piece.
Unique art work
An ode to contemplation
With a resolutely contemporary language, Samir Mazer thus breaks with codes without breaking with his culture and the traditional art work of zellige. On the contrary, it is a plea for freedom, a tribute to his identity and a great respect for the Master Craftsmen of Fes who assist him on these unique art work. Zellige goes beyond its decorative function to become a vector of artistic expression, a call to contemplation. With a sensitive gaze, a breach opens to bring a material beyond its function, its history and its culture.