23 November 2004 The Executive Committee of the International Conference on Oriental Carpets (ICOC) took advantage of Viennese hospitality to hold its annual meeting in the grandest of settings. It was timed to coincide with events organised by the Austrian Society for Textile Art Research (TKF), the active Austrian collectors' group headed by Peter Bichler, an ICOC Executive Committee member. Another committee member, Alberto Boralevi, was guest lecturer at the TKF meeting.
Dennis R. Dodds, Secretary-General of ICOC, arranged and chaired the proceedings on behalf of Robert Pinner, who was ill and could not attend. Along with discussing regular ICOC business, one of the main purposes of the meeting was to begin planning the 11th International Conference, which it has now been confirmed will be held in Istanbul from 19-22 April 2007 and not, as previously indicated, in St Petersburg.
Three members of the Istanbul delegation, Organising Committee Chairman, Mehmet Çetinkaya, Cengiz Kara and Mrs Asli Mutlu, were invited to join the Vienna meeting. They laid out plans for an ambitious program of exceptional exhibitions of early carpets from the Topkapi, Türk ve Islam Eserleri and Vakiflar Museums, as well as from previously unknown private collections. A range of exciting pre- and post-Conference tours to Anatolian villages was discussed and an international carpet fair is already drawing enquiries from dealers. It will be conveniently held, along with the lecture programme and additional smaller exhibitions, within the spacious conference headquarters at the Swissotel/The Bosphorus in Besiktas.
Although successful regional carpet congresses were held in Istanbul in 1984 and 1994, this will be the first fully international conference to be held in Turkey. As more details of the programme become available, they will be posted both on HALI.com and on the ICOC website, www.icoc-orientalrugs.org.
Looking further ahead, the completion of extensive renovations of museum facilities in St Petersburg will permit that very elegant Venice of the North to host the 2009 ICOC in its own grand style.
|
;)
