An immersive exhibition that celebrates Uzbek craft through a contemporary lens is on show at Palazzo Citterio for Milan Design Week 2026. Commissioned by Gayane Umerova, chair of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, ‘When Apricots Blossom' features 12 designers exploring ideas of cultural memory, ecology and loss within the rapidly changing context of the country's Karakalpakstan region.
Work by Kulapat Yantrasast. The traditional Uzbek bread stamp, or checkich, used to decorate flatbreads, inspired many of the designers taking part in the show
‘The communities of Karakalpakstan have faced profound environmental change for decades,' explains its curator, Kulapat Yantrasast, founder of Why Architecture. ‘We decided to focus on the Aral Sea, with its ghostly landscape evocative of sadness, but equally to centre a narrative of human resilience and humility of everyday life through the crafted ritual of making bread.'
Across all proposals, a sense of ecological consciousness prevails. Within a traditional context experiencing rapid modernisation and environmental transformation, design is used as a tool of agency and political activism, as each designer explores the brief for a vessel to hold bread and a traditional bread stamp explored through a contemporary rather than a nostalgic lens.
Sarah van Gameren and Tim Simpson, of London-based multidisciplinary studio Glithero, explore loss as the result of past colonial malpractice in the region. In the 1960s, the Aral Sea began shrinking dramatically following the diversion of its feeder rivers for irrigation, causing it to lose more than 90 per cent of its volume, turning one of the world's largest inland lakes into a desert.
Taking this as a line of reflection on how human intervention has led to irreversible ecological disaster, the prevalent iconography of floral motifs within Uzbek tradition is used to cast light on climate change and evolving land-use practices. Looking at the regenerative practice of growing trees – an activity increasingly difficult due to hostile environments – their proposal centres on wood as the primary material: a central elm pillar features carved motifs inspired by local flora.
Counter to the apricot as a traditional symbol of the Karakalpakstan region, and the prevalent white mulberry as an ancient agricultural root of silk and cotton trades, alternative motifs are selected for their ecological significance.
Sorghum – a pigmented reed – is foregrounded, alongside elm for its ability to survive and thrive in increasingly saline conditions, the latter informing material choice for the piece. The accompanying bread stamp goes back to the source, focusing on the hand that presses into the dough, a reminder of the bodies shaping the final outcome. ‘We always want to connect people to a process that has taken place before,' says van Gameren.
A piece by Marcin Rusak
Artist and designer Marcin Rusak (who guided us through his studio and process in a recent video) explores cultural memory through the medium of salt. The Aral Sea and its surrounding water bodies are characterised by a high saline content: Rusak proposes a temporal installation engaging audiences with the traces of salt left behind due to evaporation of the sea, exposing the seabed. It plays with the duality of salt being a necessary component to human life (and its central role in culinary traditions) while, at the same time, posing a threat to it due to the difficulty for life to thrive in highly saline environments.
‘In Uzbek culture, bread is symbolically likened to the sun as a source of life. At the same time, it is a humble, everyday food item’
Didi Ng Wing Yin
This dichotomy is at the heart of Rusak's concept: a glass pillar containing water with a high salt content, which supports and elevates the bread at its centre. ‘I was fascinated by the preserved state of craft and tradition. Having long evaded the grasp of modernity, it is now grappling with fast-paced growth and commodification,' says Rusak. The rate of transformation, both environmental and cultural, was a point of reference for his stamp, which is designed without a mark. In leaving the bread deliberately unstamped, it highlights a sacred tradition of marking individuality under threat in a fast-changing commodity.
By Didi Ng Wing Yin
Didi Ng Wing Yin, an artist whose work bridges digital craft, material research and sculptural form, takes a philosophical approach to the same subject, exploring the centrality of bread. ‘In Uzbek culture, bread is symbolically likened to the sun as a source of life,' says Ng. ‘At the same time, it is a humble, everyday food item. This connection between something very grounded and something very high up is where culture exists for me, in the space in between.'
By Didi Ng Wing Yin
Through conversations with local craftspeople and readings of philosophical texts by French scientist Blaise Pascal, another theme emerged: the reed, through which the relationship between body and craft is explored. ‘The reed is a fragile plant that is subject to collapse. Pascal likens humans to “tough reeds” because of their ability to think and survive,' adds Ng.
His proposal displays the bread on a bed of reeds, each one representative of the human spirit, fragile individually but strong as a collective. Through conversation with artisans, the stem section of the reed was selected for its structural capacity to support the bread at the centre, while the rest of the plant acts as a gently enclosing cushion.
The bread stamp fulfils a pragmatic function, declaring the word for bread – non – in Uzbek. It is abstracted in a way that becomes symbolic, bringing a graphic quality to an otherwise functional design. ‘For me, it is a symbol of what good design should be – practical yet functional,' says Ng.
Bethan Laura Wood’s tapestries on the palazzo’s façade, in collaboration with Uzbek artisans
The collection of works is framed within two larger gestures. On the palazzo's façade, a colourful tapestry, crafted by British designer Bethan Laura Wood in collaboration with Uzbek artisans, transforms the entrance into a richly textured threshold.
A deconstructed yurt by Kulapat Yantrasast
The yurt aglow at night
Meanwhile, in the garden, a ‘deconstructed' yurt designed by Why Architecture is conceived as a space for gathering. Inspired by the artisanal construction and mobility of traditional yurts from the region, the pavilion speaks to the temporary nature of exhibition space, and the historic Uzbek typology of the caravanserai; offering space for cultural exchange of ideas as well as moments for quiet reflection.
‘When Apricots Blossom' will be on show from 20-26 April at Palazzo Citterio, Via Brera 12-14, Milan, acdf.uz, palazzocitterio.org
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