There are many interesting things to see and the exhibition is really worth a visit. This show could really become the leading Carpet event in Europe. The spaces are large and beautifully organised.
The town of Bergamo is worth a visit itself and the venue is at 5 minutes taxi drive from Orio al Serio Airport, that is daily connected to all European Capitals with several low-cost flights. From Paris, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and many other towns it is possible to come in the morning, visit the exhibition and fly back in the evening of the same day.
Most of the 40 dealers exhibiting are Italians, but there are also some good European dealers, like for instance Mohammed Tehrani from Hamburg who the first day sold a gorgeous Turkmen main carpet.
Other foreign dealers are James Cohen (Wien) with some very good Turkmen too, Tina Tabone with textiles and few rugs, who came from Abu Dhabi, her new location after Holland.
I should mention also H. Bieler from Wien, Emir from Lyon and Serkan Sari from Karlsruhe. All of them were previously exhibiting in Sartirana.
Among the Italians other good dealers are Khotan SRK (Rodolfo Kashanian) with a splendid Transylvania Prayer rug and a group of outstanding Eastern Turkestan examples; David Sorgato with an eclectic selection of bags from various provenance and two pretty pictorial Kerman mats.
Myself, of course, with a unique 17th century variant Lotto rug, previously seen in 1999 Milan ICOC exhibition and published in ‘Sovrani Tappeti’. Still in my stand one can see an outstanding Kerman Saddle cover from around 1850 in exceptional condition and a very odd fragment of a huge Rabat carpet with very good natural dyed colours and full pile.
Local dealer Giancarlo Cobelli of La Torre Tappeti has two stands: one with a good selection of antique pieces, mainly Persian and Caucasian and the other with some modern design pieces of exceptional quality.
Other good stands are Mohtashem of Mirco Cattai (Milan) with a selection of great Kazak examples; Alberto Levi who displayed an extraordinary Ersari runner with white ground.
One of the peculiarities of this show is the presence of very large carpets due to the fact that the space here is almost… unlimited. Janghouri, a dealer from Corvara, near Bolzano (South Tyrol, northern Italy) displayed a pinkish savonnerie 10×7 metres and another Italian-Iranian dealer from Milan, Reza Shalivandi, brought a very rare and unusual octagonal shaped Mahal Carpet that has a large rectangular hole in the middle. Such carpets were used in gardens around fountain pools. The same dealer presented also a very nice and large so-called Triclinium carpets.
From Bolzano is also the Moroccan Carpets specialist Afolki who brought some beautiful and very graphic white ground large carpets together with small and colourful Berber bags and cushions.
I hope to see many European visitors and readers of Jozan Magazine. The fair is open until February 3rd from 3:00 to 8:00 PM on week days and from 10:00AM to 8:00PM on Saturday and Sunday.
Alberto Boralevi, Bergamo 28 January 2008 (rev. 29 January)