Carpet Stories, a 12 day exhibition in Kolkata will potentially be it’s first-ever show of rare tribal carpets from various weaving regions of the world, narrating mysterious stories expressed through rustic weaves and magical tribal icons.
The places include Persia (Iran), Anatolia (Turkey), the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Dagestan), Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan) and various Kurdish enclaves. This exhibition was organised by The Harrington Street Arts Centre from 28 December to 7 January.
The exhibition comes from the private collection of Danny Mehra, a passionate collector. The collection includes tribal carpets dating from the mid 19th to early 20th century and includes works by many ethnic groups including the Qashqai, Luri, Bakhtiari, Khamseh, Afshar, Shahsavan, Turkic, Baluch, Turkmen, Christians and Kurds.
Every tribal carpet is a visual story, full of icons and expressions like flowers, plants, birds, animals and human figures, mythology and shamanistic symbols.