“Intrigued or conquered by a shape or pattern, I buy an object… Then I discover another object that resembles it. Then, I let these two pieces talk to each other and I listen to them to see what they have to say to me” (Bert Flint)
Over the course of more than 60 years, Bert Flint traversed the Atlas and Anti-Atlas Mountains, the Sahara, and the Sahel regions to amass his extraordinary collection. Today, part of this collection is displayed at the Tiskiwin Museum, situated in two terraced houses in the medina of Marrakech.
Bert Flint purchased the first of these buildings in 1976 to make it his home. In 1980, he established a clothing shop there, naming it “Tiskiwin” after a traditional High Atlas dance. The dance features men wearing horns, or “tiskt,” which symbolize the mountain ram. Flint began exhibiting his collection in an upstairs room.
In 1987, Flint acquired an adjacent building to expand his exhibition space, and he opened the museum to the public in 1990. In 2006, he donated the buildings and his collection to Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech.
