26/04/2026
๐ ๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ก ๐ช๐๐๐ โ Uzbekistan ACDF + collaborators | Milan, IT | When Apricots Blossom
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๐๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ค๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ถ๐ฎ. ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ต ๐ข ๐ด๐ค๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ญ.
โWhen Apricots Blossomโ is the public face of something more interesting happening in northwestern Uzbekistan.
The Aral School runs out of Nukus, on the edge of what used to be a sea, as a six month programme for twenty two postgraduates, half regional, half international, working together on what comes after ecological collapse.
The Milan presentation is making a case for that model. The chekich collaborations on view at Palazzo Citterio are the same logic at smaller scale.
Twelve international designers, reaching from Mexico to Nigeria, the UK to Hong Kong, Uzbekistan to the Netherlands, worked with Karakalpak and Uzbek artisans to reinterpret the chekich, a hand held wooden stamp pressed into bread dough before baking, whose floral and geometric motifs are specific to a household or a bakery.
Participating designers: Bethan Laura Wood ( ), Bobir Klichev ( ), Didi Ng Wing Yin ( ), Fernando Laposse ( ), Glithero ( ), Kulapat Yantrasast ( ), Marcin Rusak ( ), Nifemi Marcus-Bello ( ), Raw-Edges ( ), Sanne Visser ( ), Sevara Haydarova-Donazzan (.h.d ), and Studio CoPain ( ).
The collection travels back to Uzbekistan in June for the first international edition of Tashkent Design Week. The Aral Culture Summit follows in Nukus this September.
Presented by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation.
Commissioned by Gayane Umerova ( ), Chairperson of ACDF.
Curated by Kulapat Yantrasast ( ) of WHY Architecture ( ).
Production by Black Engineering ( ).
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