Alexandre Rocha*
São Paulo – Businessmen from Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia are going to exhibit in the first edition of Art Mundi, an international handicraft fair to take place at the Anhembi exhibition centre, in São Paulo, southeastern Brazil, to start next Friday (11). According to the organization, representatives of 22 countries and 16 Brazilian states will exhibit their products at the fair, to be open to the public in general.
According to Lourdes Makowiecky, commercial manager at Diretriz, the company that organizes the fair, among the exhibitors expected is Aoudi Rioha, from Tunisian trading company Aimex, who is going to exhibit artefacts like purses, bags and shoes made out of camel leather. The Egyptian Hassan Mohamed, who has a company called Pyramid, is going to sell varied articles from her country like scarves and accessories in general and decoration objects.
Rioha and Mohamed have already participated in other exhibitions organized by Diretriz. The company currently promotes Feiarte, also of handicraft, in Curitiba, the capital of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, and Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, also in the south. The Moroccan Ezzizi Amine, of Les Tresors de Thuya (The Treasures of Thuya), is going to exhibit for the first time.
According to Lourdes, the exhibitors are invited by Diretriz itself. "We find many at international fairs, where we make the invitations," she said. Contacts with the three Arab businessmen were made at fairs in Europe.
Art Mundi will be a retail fair, i.e., customers may go and buy. This does not, however, make it impossible for greater business deals, by distributors and retailers, to take place. Lourdes stated that in the events in Porto Alegre and Curitiba the presence of caravans of retailers interested in buying wholesale is common.
Apart from the Arabs, businessmen and artisans from South Africa, Bolivia, China, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Kenya, Senegal, Turkey and Uruguay, among others, are also expected.
There will be 200 exhibitors, who are going to show around 30,000 products of all price ranges. The organization hopes to receive 150,000 visitors over the 10 days of the fair. The stands will be distributed over an area of 11,000 square metres.
Service
Art Mundi
From August 11 to 20
Monday to Saturday from 02:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Sunday (13) from 02:00 pm to 09:00 pm
Sunday (20) from 02:00 pm to 06:00 pm
Site
West Pavilion of the Anhembi
Av. Olavo Fontoura, 1.209, Santana, São Paulo – SP
Admittance
Individual – R$ 10
For caravans of over 10 people – R$ 7 per head
Further information
Diretriz
Tel: (+55 41) 3075-1144, with Aline
*Translated by Mark Ament
