Participants

The Baba Tree Basket Company from Northern Ghana has been preserving the culture of exquisitely woven baskets of the Gurunsi community in Bolgatanga for the last 15 years. It’s here that the Baba Tree community of over 250 artisans practice a time-honoured weaving technique using elephant grass and their very own “rhythm and flow - energetic, colourful, purposeful.

Instagram: babatreebaskets
Contact: Ashima Gandhi

Website

FLOC home was founded by Nina Howard in Kenya where she collaborates with specialized artisans to design grounded creations from locally-sourced natural materials curated into original, delicate, moving art pieces.

In her work modern design, artisan culture and ethical business unite.

Instagram: floc_home
Contact: Nina Howard

Website

Collaborative Craft Projects  is based in Zimbabwe and works with international designers to realize custom-made pieces for their interiors.

The Founder Jane Taylor is committed to fair trade principles. Every piece in their range of homeware is crafted with values rooted deeply in the fundamental responsibility to preserve the traditional skills and natural heritage of Zimbabwean culture and craft.

Instagram: collaborative_craft_projects
Contact: Jane Taylor

Website

Quazi Design was born out of a partnership between a designer and the local magazine distributor in 2010 in Eswatini, Southern Africa.

By transforming waste magazines and newspapers into original designs they create much needed employment in the region.

#Sustainable design, ethical production, transparency, and craftsmanship.

Instagram: quazi_design
Contact: Doron Shaltiel

Website

WomenCraft x Emmanuel Babled
This collection was born out of the partnership of the Tanzanian social enterprise WomenCraft and the French designer Emmanuel Babled. WomenCraft is a social enterprise in Ngara, in the remote northeast of Tanzania, whose mission is to increase economic opportunity in the post-conflict, area of Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania by bringing rural women together and connecting their artistry to the global marketplace.

Instagram: womencraft
Contact: Lorenza Marzo

Website

Marie De Decker is an artist of Flemish and Fulani origins who has been selected for the prestigious “Révélations 2025” in the Grand Palais. Her unique work on photography and one-of-a-kind lacquer boxes displaying a refined usage of gold is inspired by the Masters of flemish paintings as well as the heritage of African spirituality giving way to her singular aesthetic signature.

Instagram: art_marie_de_decker
Contact: art.mariededecker@gmail.com

Website

Corina Gertz's photographs belong to her global long-term project „Averted Portrait", in which she portrays women in traditional dress and costume.

In all her portraits, she makes clothing and attributes visible as cultural constants that are equally an expression of individuality and belonging across all regions of the world and across generations.

But her subjects remain hidden; the clothing alone communicates.

In both galleries we are exhibiting her portraits of Turkana and Samburu women from Northern Kenya.

Instagram: corinagertz
Contact: Corina Gertz

Website

Diana Maclean x WILD at HEART Kenya

We will exhibit some of the finest pieces of jewellery by the Samburu beaders Northern Kenya that Diana Maclean worked with for this art project.

Working in Kenya for nearly 20 years, Diana uses a diverse range of skills in her own ethical enterprise, WILD at HEART Kenya, combined with documentary journalism.

Through WILD at HEART Kenya, artisans use their traditional skills working from home making exceptionally high-quality, beaded leather designs. Diana also create custom-made branded designs, to benefit pastoralist women and wildlife conservation.

Instagram: wildatheartkenya
Contact: Diana Maclean

Website

Badara Ndiaye is a multi-disciplinary designer and artist with a strong international followership. 

From his childhood in Senegal to his career in the NBA basketball league in the US over to modelling and painting, his Art talks about transformation.

It allows him to express everything that is deeply buried in him since his youth: perseverance, resilience, courage but also a certain break with societal norms. 

He strongly appreciates differences between people and cultures and has turned his personal life course into an added value, a passport to life. 

For Paris Design Week, Badara will specifically design a series of objects and furniture, upcycling material to reignite it with a new purpose and message. 

Instagram: bnsince84
Contact: Badara Ndiaye

Sabahar

We are exhibiting a variety of stunning pieces from Sabahar, Ethiopia, made of cotton, eri silk and linen for home decor and to be worn as shawls.

The 100% handmade textiles have a softness and radiation that emanate from the process of harvesting the cotton, carding and spinning it by hand and eventually getting it woven by hand by the talented artisans of the team.

All our exhibitors abide by the rules of fair trade, Sabahar is also certified by the World Fair Trade Organization.

Instagram: sabahar
Contact: Kathy Marshall

Website

The lost wax Collection

For centuries the Akan people of West Africa have created gold ornaments that stood out for their strong artistic inventiveness and refinement.

Making use of the traditional lost wax casting technique, every ornament first gets formed in wax, then cast in brass (formerly in gold) before breaking the mold, thus making every piece one-of-a-kind.

In designing this jewellery collection, the fact that the Akan goldsmiths freely mixed motifs of different cultures in their designs inspired me.

This eclectic jewellery collection was made by talented artisans in Kumasi and Accra and is 100% ethically handmade in Ghana using recycled glass and brass.

Instagram: based_upon_a_true_story
Contact: Xenia von Poser