This article deals with the latest and quite daring installation of the one of the most famous and oldest carpet collections worldwide: the collection of the MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, which includes pieces from the former Austrian imperial household. Michael Embacher designed a sanctuary-like space in which the individual carpets are suspended from different levels and presented at varying angles. The underlying curatorial concept stresses the interconnectedness of carpet designs during the classical age of the large Islamic empires from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. This unique presentation enables the visitor to experience their splendour and to contextualize them within carpet history in an atmospherically dense space.
Keywords: Islamic art and architecture; global art; history of carpets; history of collecting; history of design
Karl, Barbara, Angela Völker and Michael Embacher. "A Sanctuary for Carpets: The New Installation at the MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, 2014." In International Journal of Islamic Architecture, Volume 7, Number 2 (pp. 353-370) , edited by Yuka Kadoi and Mohammad Gharipour, Bristol: Intellect, 2018.
