Where Living Poetics Become an Immersive World
In an immersive takeover of the historic Palazzo Citterio, When Apricots Blossom convened designers, artisans, architects, filmmakers and researchers to bring international attention to Karakalpakstan, a region in northwestern Uzbekistan where lives and landscapes have been shaped by the shrinking of the Aral Sea over the past six decades.
The exhibition scenography (designed by Yantrasast and Oskar Boquillon of WHY Architecture), material language, collaborative spirit of the commissions and dynamic public programme distilled the specificities of Karakalpak and Uzbek culture for a diverse international audience, and balanced them with the environmental realities of the region and wider world – by foregrounding themes of resilience and cultural continuity.
“Our intention this week was for the Aral Sea to be recognised not only as a site of loss, but as a lens through which design considers broader questions of climate, culture and responsibility. Cross-cultural collaboration was at the heart of this exhibition: the knowledge exchange between our craftspeople and their international contemporaries has reinvigorated the dialogue between our shared past, present and future.”
“The exhibition’s integration of the Aral School, Aral Culture Summit and the film Where the Water Ends reinforces ACDF’s long-term, sustained commitment to the region and allows us to extend this project beyond the temporal boundaries of Milan Design Week.”
Said Gayane Umerova, Chairperson of ACDFKulapat Yantrasast, the exhibition curator added:
“This is only the first step in what is a long-term collaboration and friendship that happens through design and craft, only the beginning of what should be life-long research into cultural continuity. What we presented is not craft of the past, but the trajectory of what the future of craft should be – essential, regenerative, resilient and alive – not only for Uzbekistan, but for every culture.”
“ Our Garden Pavilion became the focal point for this exchange throughout the week. As both architectural gesture and social space, the ‘deconstructed yurt’ embodied the exhibition’s underlying premise: that design can hold absence while creating new forms of living and meaning.”
It forms part of ACDF’s long term commitment to sustained investment and international dialogue around the Aral Sea region. Other initiatives that will explore this subject include the Uzbekistan National Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia which will present The Aural Sea (May 9-November 22), the first international edition of Tashkent Design Week (June 1-7), the presentation of final research proposals from the 22 participants of the Aral School (late June), the opening of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Tashkent (September) and the second edition of the Aral Culture Summit (Sept 11-13).
