UNDEAD UNDYED

Homo began using colors 500,000 years ago, but their application in textile dyeing only emerged with Sapiens, hundreds of thousands of years later. The human need to "leave a mark"—whether artistic, totemic, or decorative—could, however, also be fulfilled by alternating fibers of different natural tones, thus bypassing the dyeing stage. Wools from white, brown, and beige sheep were prepared to produce yarns of diverse colors, which were then woven, felted, or knotted into the desired patterns.

This was a system that optimized resources, essential for the ancient nomadic and pastoral populations inhabiting the most remote regions of Anatolia, Kurdistan, Central Asia, and West Africa. It is from these millenary cultures that the ancient carpets, tapestries, kilims, felts, and mats presented by Galleria Altai originate.

A journey through necessity, ingenuity, and beauty, across distant lands and among unknown peoples who have now vanished, yet whose art achieved incomparable heights.