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them was a satisfying and stimulating Visual reference pieces by Athi-Patra
process for Molori’s interior designer. ‘It Ruga, Cameron Platter, Jody Paulsen,
has been the honour of a lifetime to work Maja Marx, Nabeeha Mohamed and
with the art that I’ve had the privilege Groenewald were skillfully digitised by
of seeing during this project,’ says Jana+Koos, enabling master craftsmen
Kleinloog. Every work evokes a different at Durban-based Brabetz Carpet Mill to
emotion, whether it be the controversial produce these unique three-dimensional,
Lady Skollie or the deliberately soothing textured ‘works of art’.
landscapes in the spa by Junior Fungai, the Today, two years after the project started
Zimbabwean post-war and contemporary in the second quarter of 2020, each suite
painter. features one of the artist’s extraordinary
Knowing that the walls and surfaces rugs. The main lodge area features the
would soon house new statement pieces, unexpected ‘Eat Me (Bananas)’ rug by
Kleinloog focused first on creative Paulsen while Ruga’s rug lends exuberance
ideas for floor coverings that would to the Molelo Presidential Suite.
complement the organic architectural Considered in their individual
structure of the lodge. Its curved walls instances and together as an overall
required some out-of-the-box thinking, project, the rugs ‘spark joy’, as Kleinloog
so she asked designer Koos Groenewald puts it. The floor pieces playfully pull
of creative studio Jana+Koos to make one together the new interiors in a move that
rug that would echo the curved lines. An intentionally sets Molori apart in a light-
bananas painted provocatively, art critics artist in his own right, he jumped at the hearted departure from the safari lodge
have stamped Lady Skollie’s works as challenge and soon found himself making norm. There is no doubt that Kleinloog’s
anything from ‘an erotic jolt to the art ‘art + rugs’. Before long, it was dubbed ‘the vision was nothing short of pioneering
world’ to ‘mildly offensive’. Her goal is rug project’ and leading contemporary and as a result, Molori is a marriage of
to spark crucial debates amongst men artists were commissioned to create art natural wonder, adventurous interiors,
and women on taboo topics with works for the floor. astounding rugs, and captivating
revolving around themes of gender, sex ‘We collaborated with some of South contemporary artworks mixed with
and the politics of lust, as well as her Africa’s most provocative contemporary museum-worthy fine art. dw
musings on identity. artists who agreed to have their
Seeing these pieces installed and artworks interpreted and woven into www.roraprivatecollection.com/molori-
conceptualizing creative interiors to offset these magnificent rugs,’ says Ichikowitz. safari

Edoardo Villa Molori main lodge
Lady Skollie artwork

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