Afghan Women and Fishes
Strange, strange indeed, fish in Afghanistan! This idea might seem absurd at first glance. This decidedly mountainous country has no sea, yet it was precisely the combination of different ideas that led to this theme being proposed for the 2025 "Pour l'Amour du Fil" competition in Nantes.
During archaeological excavations less than 20 km from Laghmani, small glass bottles shaped like fish were discovered, presumably for perfume. Ancient Rome had already reached this far! Some of these bottles are on display at the Musée Guimet for Asian Art in Paris. These fish-shaped glass bottles, along with many other (golden) objects, form the Bagram Treasure, which dates from the 1st to 2nd centuries AD.
There are the rushing waters flowing down from the Panjshir Valley, with the Hindu Kush Mountains in the background, not far from the Shomali Plain, where the embroiderers live. This mountain stream doesn't supply the fish now offered at the stalls in the capital. They come from two aquaculture facilities south of Kabul. But who can afford these fish? Certainly not the embroiderers, for whom this creature remains an unaffordable exotic.
In the villages, there are several small ponds. These reservoirs offer some respite from the heat, and orange fish swim in their green water: the only fish the embroiderers have ever seen.
This creature is somewhat well-known, often imagined, and reveals the fantastic imagination of the embroiderers—a realm where perhaps the only one where anything is possible!
This exhibition is available for loan.
Here is a small selection of works.
