Kukeri Collection

Authors’ Comment

Kukeri

This rug collection is inspired by Bulgarian ancestral rituals, held at the beginning of each year mostly in the southern part of the country.
Kukeri (кукери) are elaborately costumed Bulgarian men, who perform traditional rituals intended to scare away evil spirits. This Bulgarian tradition has been practiced since Thracian times and is of a Thracian origin. This is supposed to be the last alive pagan ritual in Europe and in 2015, the festival Surva has been designated as a UNESCO site of intangible cultural heritage.
Costumes are typically made from goat or sheep furs big, noisy bells are hanging on the waist of the Kuker performer and scarry mask are covering the face creating an monstruous appearance.
The costumes, the masks, the performance are acts of power and connection with the world of the unseen. I found the expression of this ritual also as a highly esthetic universe. While you watch this performance a powerful feeling runs through your veins, it is a feeling of fear, joy and ecstasy. The dance aims to scare the bad spirits and clear the path for spring to come.
“I see a rug as an expression of the universe as an object embedding a tradition. I was looking for the most powerful expression of our roots and that’s how I decided to bring one of the last pagan rituals in Europe into attention. My intention is to bring through this design the power of dance, belief, fear, excitement and joy embodied into an everyday object”, says the author.

Kukeri - ritual inspired rug, brings joy into one’s interior space and keeps bad spirits far away from the house. Both fear and joy embodied into a design can bring meaningful presence into interior.
The rug is made of wool mix of natural colors and colored silk with natural pigments following as closely as possible the costumes itself. The color is supposed to reveal the emotion and spiritual state that is experienced by the performer.

The producer is a Romanian brand that combines contemporary design with traditional Tibetan craftsmanship to create statement rugs, using hand knotted technique and finest natural fibers.
Each rug is crafted exclusively on request and can be customized in size, colors and materials to become a truly unique piece.
The brand is a proud member of Label Step, the fair-trade non-profit organization committed to the wellbeing of weavers and workers in the handmade carpet industry.