BROKEN SYMMETRY: Athena Calderone x Beni Rugs

I am always seeking and searching, allowing for my deepest curiosity to lead the way.

I truly believe that when we grant our inquisitive nature open access to the art, architecture, color, and texture that surrounds us (along with its imperfections and unknowns) we can cultivate this state of perpetual inspiration that is so ripe for creativity. It’s here from this inquiring space where my Beni Rugs collection, Broken Symmetry was born. That and our shared love of the craft, the unknowns, the juxtapositions, and the imperfections Moroccan rug making celebrates, was the common thread woven into each and every piece.

I’ll never forget my first trip to Marrakech. I trawled the souks for rugs and learned to appreciate texture and patina through the new textiles, muted sun-washed hues, and rudimentary materials I found. That experience left an indelible mark on my design point of view and how I see the world. It also allowed me to see juxtaposition, symmetry, and imperfection through a new lens.

Broken Symmetry, a collection of 12 rugs, is a reflection on that harmonic and disharmonic cadence of shapes, tones, and textures I experienced, and the emotional reactions they arouse in the eye of the beholder.

This inspiration is not unlike my design process for the collection, both constant and chaotic all at once. Where I started was never where I ended up. I would distill, refine, take away, add. Oftentimes, I would go in circles only to end up where I began while at other times, I’d come to a completely new place I never imagined to land. But it’s in that process of diving into the unknown, of merging opposing sentiments, people, places, and ideas where we all find the common ground and balance we seek.