From Semiotic Representation to Identity Expression: When Carpet Motifs Weave Algerian Culture

Abstract

This article explores the dialectic of the complex relationship between the sign and reality in the motifs of traditional carpets. Drawing on a semiotic approach inspired by the Peircean triad (icon, index, symbol) and visual semiotics, applied to a corpus of 31 motifs from carpets of southern Algeria, the results show that the motif is not a mimetic copy of reality, but rather a symbolic translation of beliefs, lived experiences, an environment, and a collective memory.

The plastic expression of this relationship is achieved through a unique articulation between figuration, stylization, and abstraction, forming a mode of semiotic representation that reveals a distinctive graphic signature and an identity-based language specific to the culture of southern Algeria.