Last week the Ecotanana exhibition was held at the Alliance Française de Tananarive, yet another opportunity to enjoy our Malagasy handicraft artwork. I personally am always amazed about how those artisans get their inspiration and use the different available materials and mix them to give astonishing and beautiful products.
Just check the following: a picture is better than a thousand words.

sarety light

I know I am biased on my appreciation of their work (we all think our artisans’s work is the best, right?), but to give you some background, I’ve had the chance of talking for a few minutes to the trainer of some of those artisans (who have design training at Madacraft), and you can feel how passionate he is (and the artisans are)… Moreover, even though Madagascar may not have a very strong design culture, having those artisans assimilate this concept and produce surprising art is just awesome.
Take for example this light: it has a Malagasy cultural background as you can guess inspiration came from the “sarety”

whale mirror

Now let’s move to this mirror that I guess has taken its inspiration from the whales (the first set of whales by the way has been seen in Sainte Marie, time for whalewatching)

To end up with showcasing how creative those artisans are, let’s consider different variations of cushions. Look at the different materials that has been used.

made with zebu leather

made with dried-banana peelmade with satrana