Peter Halley’s artwork “Magic Carpet” colors the entrance to ArtVerona 2023

Magic Carpet, the 42-meter long carpet designed by the artist Peter Halley and made with ECONYL® yarn welcomes visitors to the Galleria dei Signori and offers the public, for three days only, the opportunity to establish a contact with the work of art of one of the most recognized international artists.

After having been realized in 2021 and 2022 by two important Italian artists such as Paola Pivi and Stefano Arienti, the installation of the Red Carpet is created for the first time by a famous international artist, Peter Halley. Red Carpet has become one of the most recognizable and identifying projects of ArtVerona over the years. It is a monumental work of art that takes the form of a carpet of over 400 square meters placed at the entrance to the fair, becoming a meeting platform and a recognisable artistic sign.
The project is carried out in collaboration with the Massimo Minini Gallery of Brescia thanks to the partnership with Aquafil, creators of the ECONYL® brand, and ege, a Danish carpet manufacturer.

Peter Halley’s artwork creates a single, flowing tapestry using a complex grid of interconnected rectangles. Each rectangular element is filled with intensely colored curvilinear arabesques, reminiscent of Venetian marble or Islamic decorative motifs. The density of patterns, colors and textures of the 2023 Red Carpet is part of one of Halley’s main graphic themes, the Exploding Cell, which he has used in his installations since the 1990s. 

At the end of the event, the work will have a second life. Like the previous one by Stefano Arienti, the giant Red Carpet was in fact designed to be resized, reworked and proposed in smaller parts so that many people can enjoy it while doing good at the same time. The proceeds from the sale will in fact be donated to the Alba Chiara association, with which Aquafil has been collaborating for some time now.