Uzbekistan presents 'The Road to Samarkand. Wonders of Silk and Gold' exhibition in Paris

 "The Road to Samarkand. The wonders of Silk and Gold" exhibition held at the Arab World Institute in Paris, was organized by the Foundation for the Development of Culture and Art. The exhibition is dedicated to the national costume and folk arts and crafts of Uzbekistan in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The exhibition presents 23 colorful paintings from the famous collection of Russian and Turkestan avant-garde of the State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan named after I. Savitsky. I. V. Savitsky.
Also on display is an extraordinary installation of 24 traditional robes from Khorezm, Samarkand and Bukhara, as well as from Tashkent and the cities of the Fergana Valley. In the 19th and early 20th centuries silk, semi-silk and cotton abrasive fabrics were produced in most cities of Central Asia. The most actively developed in Uzbekistan at that time was the artistic dyeing of abr cloth, known in the world as ikats. Nowadays manufacturing of ikats is the most developed in Margilan, where contemporary craftsmen produce fabrics according to ancient traditions and technologies, passed down from generation to generation. At the exhibition, you can see them in all their diversity until June 4, 2023.

The exhibition also included a unique ritual dress of Karakalpak brides - "Kok koilek". For the first time, girls wore Kok koilek when they entered the age of marriage, on holidays and at their own weddings. The embroidery of the dress was called "the pattern of a ring" and represented the cosmogonic motives of the Tree of Life and the Mother-Goddess. The image of young female warriors sung in the famous Karakalpak epos "Kyrk kyz" ("Forty Girls") can be read here.