MATA Project

MATA is more than an equestrian game — it is a living tableau of Morocco’s spiritual and tribal identity, an event where myth, history, and spectacle converge on horseback. Rooted in the mountainous region of Jbala near Tangier, this centuries-old tradition, said to descend from the Central Asian Buzkashi and brought to Morocco by Sufi leader Moulay Abdeslam in the 13th century, continues to unfold each spring as tribes gather to honor a shared cultural ritual.



At the heart of the contest lies a powerful symbol: a handmade female-shaped doll. Once the prize was a bride, today it is this figure — created and adorned by the women of the community — that riders fiercely compete to capture and carry to victory. Only one woman is allowed to ride in the game, a revered tribal figure, yet she is excluded from any real chance of winning. Her presence, like the doll itself, becomes emblematic: central to the ritual yet symbolically silent.



This paradox — a female form at the center of male competition, admired yet unreachable — brings into focus the complex tension between tradition and patriarchy, visibility and exclusion. Simultaneously, the evolving participation of women in the ceremonial and artistic dimensions of MATA — from song and dance to the doll’s making — speaks of resilience, authorship, and the subtle spaces in which power is reclaimed.



Now officially recognized as part of Morocco’s intangible cultural heritage by ICESCO, and supported by UNESCO, the MATA Festival reflects a broader effort to preserve and re-express ancestral practices in contemporary terms. Through this photographic project, I explore MATA not just as a folkloric performance, but as a mirror of social structures — a poetic and provocative site where beauty, gender, devotion, and resistance are all in motion.