Uzbekistan takes Brera

# Uzbekistan takes Brera Uzbekistan is bringing one of the most ambitious national presentations of this year’s Milan Design Week into the center of Brera. From April 20 to April 26, 2026, the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation will stage *When Apricots Blossom*, an immersive exhibition at Palazzo Citterio, the newly opened cultural site linked to Milan’s expanding Brera museum district. (gulftoday.ae) The project arrives at a moment when Brera is becoming more than a gallery neighborhood and more like a citywide cultural platform. Palazzo Citterio opened to the public in December 2024 as the long-delayed modern art extension of the Pinacoteca di Brera, completing a broader “Grande Brera” vision that ties together museums, libraries, and major heritage sites in Milan. (gulftoday.ae) That setting matters because *When Apricots Blossom* is not being placed in an anonymous fair booth or temporary pavilion. It is being installed inside a historic palace at Via Brera 12, in one of the most visible districts of Milan Design Week, where institutions, brands, and national cultural projects compete for attention during the city’s annual design takeover. (fuorisalone.it) The exhibition is commissioned by Gayane Umerova, chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, and curated by architect Kulapat Yantrasast. Its title comes from a poem by Uzbek writer Hamid Olimjon, and the show is framed around hope, renewal, and resilience rather than around a simple display of objects. (nova.acdf.uz) At the center of the exhibition is Karakalpakstan and the wider Aral Sea region, an area whose identity has been shaped by both deep craft traditions and severe environmental loss. Official exhibition materials describe the project as an invitation to explore the culture of a region that was once home to one of the world’s largest inland lakes and has since undergone dramatic ecological change. (nova.acdf.uz) Instead of presenting that story as a documentary timeline, the show organizes it through everyday life. The exhibition moves through three themes—textiles, food, and shelter—using them as a way to connect visitors with the materials, rituals, and memory carried by local craft traditions. (nova.acdf.uz) That structure gives the project a practical, tactile quality. Organizers say visitors will encounter textile installations, a contemporary interpretation of a traditional yurt, and specially designed bread trays produced in collaboration with Uzbek artisans, all intended to show how design can carry knowledge across generations. (nova.acdf.uz) The foundation has also used the exhibition to build an international design roster around Uzbek making. According to the official program, 12 designers and studios contributed new works, including Bethan Laura Wood, Fernando Laposse, Marcin Rusak, Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Raw-Edges, Glithero, Studio CoPain, and several Uzbek-linked contributors, with pieces developed alongside artisans working with wood, silk, ceramic, felt, and reed. (nova.acdf.uz) A film is part of the presentation as well. *Where The Water Ends*, commissioned for the project and made by filmmaker Manuel Correa with architect Marina Otero Verzier, introduces the Aral Sea region through the lives and public rituals of Karakalpak communities, extending the exhibition beyond design objects into questions of memory and climate collapse. (nova.acdf.uz) The exhibition also serves as a showcase for the foundation’s longer cultural agenda. The official description links *When Apricots Blossom* to initiatives including the Aral Culture Summit and the Aral School, suggesting that Milan is being used not just for visibility but as an international stage for Uzbekistan’s ongoing work around culture, ecology, and regional identity. (nova.acdf.uz) This is why the Brera location is more than a backdrop. Fuorisalone’s own 2026 programming describes Brera as a district with a strong international vocation, and the Uzbekistan project is being positioned as one of the area’s featured events during a week when the neighborhood turns into a dense map of installations, exhibitions, and cultural launches. (fuorisalone.it) For Uzbekistan, the message is clear: national cultural diplomacy now includes design, installation, and storytelling as much as it includes heritage display. For Milan, the project shows how Design Week keeps stretching beyond furniture and product launches into something closer to a temporary world expo of identity, craft, and soft power. (gulftoday.ae)