Victorian artist Rita Lazauskas worked for twenty years as a curator for public institutions before taking time off with partner Bruce Derrick to travel to Morocco in 2010. There, they fell in love with the culture of the ‘Amazigh’ or Berbers of Northern Africa. The pair’s absorption in this rich culture led them to develop a now thriving business leading small groups from Australia to Morocco: Amazigh Cultural Tours offers a diverse selection of art tours guided by notable contemporary Australian artists, with expeditions that specialise in drawing, printmaking, photography, jewellery and textiles.
Art Almanac spoke to Lazauskas about the joys and challenges of organising these unique cultural journeys.
Elisabeth Cummings in Morocco. Courtesy Amazigh Cultural Tours
Can you tell us how your cultural tourism operation was founded?
What began in 2010 as a stab at a map of the world to choose our next holiday destination has grown into a wonderful experience that is best shared with like-minded people. Following six weeks travelling around Morocco I was offered an opportunity to return to lead a drawing tour in 2011. We met the best guide in Morocco, Abdenabi (Abdou) Imelouane, and requested to work with him. A wonderful friendship and collaboration began that has continued to grow over fourteen years as we formed our own specialist art tour business. Morocco is a great place to find traditional textiles. A silversmith friend suggested a jewellery tour, and so it began to grow. We invited other fabulous artists to lead a variety of tours that now include painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, jewellery, textiles and more.
Why Morocco?
Morocco presented us with a very different holiday experience. Without endless museums and galleries to visit, the engagement came through experiencing the cultural history, the landscape and people. The markets in the ancient Medinas are a total sensory overload, with an intensity of colour and pattern. All this is then juxtaposed with incredible contrasts by making forays into the spectacular landscape.
Wendy Sharpe at Aït Benhaddou, Morocco. Courtesy Amazigh Cultural Tours
Who are some of the artists who have taught in your touring art programs over the years?
We have worked with Elisabeth Cummings, Dianne Fogwell, Silvi Glattauer, Martin King, Susan Purdy, Wendy Sharpe, Dore Stockhausen & Marcus Foley, Anne Zahalka and more. We have also developed a strong strand of specialist textiles tours working with several well-known Australian and American art quilt makers and weavers whose works can stand up well against the best colour field painters, as do the traditional carpet weavings of Morocco. Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Gloria Loughman, Valerie Kirk, and Maria Shell are standout artists working in this area.
You pride yourselves on being a culturally sensitive operation. Can you elaborate on this?
Travelling slowly we have time to make some art along the way and there is plenty of time for discussion and the sharing of ideas. Our local guides are very willing to discuss local customs and beliefs giving us an insight into the indigenous Amazigh and Islamic worlds. The tours are about immersing in the local culture and history and gathering inspiration for your artmaking.
Anne Zahalka and her dromedary. Courtesy Amazigh Cultural Tours
What have been some of the highlights of the art tours over the years?
Using an ancient olive press for printmaking with Martin King; creating cyanotypes in the Saharan sun with Susan Purdy; dressing up for Anne Zahalka’s photo shoots and experiencing her very dynamic approach to artmaking; painting in the Atlas Mountains with Elisabeth Cummings; casting silver in an ancient kasbah workshop in the Sahara; eco-dyeing with the local women; walking through the Skoura Oasis, meeting the locals and learning about the subsistence farming and rural ways of life.
How do you see the organisation developing in the future?
We are very interested in raising the status of textile art forms that have been relegated to “women’s work” and the “craft” sector in the past and are greatly under-recognised and undervalued. Creating a cultural exchange between Indigenous Australian artists and Moroccan Amazigh artists may be a challenge we will explore in the future.
