My rug story

I grew up with rugs, these rugs. Some of the pieces I know for all my life. The smell, the colors, the ornaments. In all the moving around they were one of the few constants, something that moved with us – they were a piece of home.

The very first trip in my life, I was only about one year old, was to Istanbul. To the bazaar, where sat at Kemal’s, my dad´s “rug mentor” – with tea (kids) and raki (adults). Rugs – art pieces smelling of history, field and dust – were thrown, examined and appreciated.
During the years I listened to a lot of stories filled up with history, friendship, passion and curiosity. While working on our exhibition and the catalogue in 2016 I dived into the deeper meaning behind the ornaments, colors and materials. I started to develop a deeper understanding for my father´s passion and enthusiasm.

I never became a collector but I understood from a very young age: There was more to this. Those pieces were more than “just” carpets. It was about the combination of old and new, then and now, modernity and tradition, beauty and history. I want to bring these wonderful pieces back to life a little bit. I want young people to rediscover them and look a little behind the fabric facade: A rug is a rug. But it is also a colorful work of art, full of tradition and history.

Rugs are beautiful, but above all they are also exciting if you look closely for a moment. I will tell you about them in this blog, share my own stories and share other interesting people’s profiles with their rug stories. I am very excited about this website, this blog, this project – it is a part of my father’s story and now mine. He used to say: Make something of it – well … here we go!