A collaborative project between architecture studio AOUMM and photographer Giovanna Silva, focuses on the complex history of the Basotho blanket, a national emblem in Lesotho that remains central to every rite of passage, from childbirth to marriage to burial ceremonies, and everything else in between. Each blanket is decorated with stylized drawings taken from a palimpsest of petroglyphs, architectural motifs, and historical events, which take on life when folded and wrapped around people’s shoulders. In Lesotho, to wear a blanket is to wear a fragment of the country’s landscape and history.
By
Matteo Poli, Luca Astorri and Giovanna Silva
Photographs by
Giovanna Silva
Writers
Luca Astorri and Matteo Poli
Designer
Brian Paul Lamotte
Editor
Tom Ridgway
Published by
Bruno Ceschel
Printer
Grafiche Veneziane, printed in Italy