Bert Flint : An exhibition of a life-long passion

The  »Musee Yves Saint Laurent’’ holds an exhibition of Bert Flint’s personal collection from the 21st of October to the 30th of May to celebrate  »Berber » culture and the historical link that Morocco has with Sub-Saharan regions through the eyes of a passionate.

As you walk into the exhibition, the first thing that captivates you are the meticulously carved Amazigh Fibulas, with a huge neon sign that says ‘’Bert Flint’’, if you haven’t previously heard of him, you wonder, how come such a European name is highlighted on top of a purely Amazigh North African piece of art ? And that is exactly what this exhibition aims to answer…

Bert Flint was born in the Netherlands in 1931, he studied Spanish language and literature, and during his visit to Alhambra in Granada, the history of Muslim Spain and the civilisation of Al-Andalus sparked a light in his heart and made him hungry for more…Later on during his first trip to Morocco in 1954, he realised that the culture he had fell in love with has never actually died, but it lived on through its people in Morocco. According to him, Moroccans lead a life guided by a daily quest of beauty and refined elegance, he then decided to settle in Marrakech in 1957.

The longer he spent in Morocco the more he realised that the Moroccan rural culture is what contains the vital energy necessary to move forward and the traditions inherited from the Andalus ended up appearing as a gaze towards the past to him. After teaching at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Casablanca and doing a lot of research across the world he then decided to quit teaching and focus on growing his own collection from the closest cultures to his heart.

 At his house in Marrakech which became the Tiskiwin Museum in 1989, he organised his collections in order to show that the populations that had spread from southern Morocco to the Sahel are all part of the same cultural community, sharing similar natural environments and common traditions largely inherited from prehistory.

Basketry, poetry, ornaments, amulets, textiles and leather are presented all together in this visual poem of love from Bert Flint to Morocco, a beautiful merge of colours and metals and tools that carry a message of passion and enthusiasm that is impossible to not be felt at each step. 

Fasten your seatbelts because you’re in for a trip through the journey of Bert Flint, starting from his arrival to Tangier, then crosses territories and sites from Marrakech to Tafilalt and on to sub-Saharan regions, each object exhibited bears witness to and leaves trace of shared cultural practices and attests to the presence of a common cultural heritage. 

 » Morocco has been intimately linked, since prehistoric times, to the sub-Saharan world. This is what my museum and exhibition wish to underscore  »

Bert Flint