Remote landscapes and archival images oscillate in the darkness, gradually dissolving into shades of colour and rays of light. This sense of dematerialisation is accentuated by the silk fabric onto which the moving image is being projected and the lightness and transparency of the fibre embody more than just material precariousness. Silk has been deeply connected to Central Asia for millennia and is now at the core of the video installation As We Fade (2024) by the Uzbek artist Saodat Ismailova (born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1981). This new work has been commissioned for the solo exhibition A Seed Under Our Tongue, curated by Roberta Tenconi and currently on view at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan, a former locomotive manufacturing facility. Ismailova’s explorations of diverse media take us on a journey through the socio-political and cultural heritage of her home country, while also exploring broader environmental, spiritual and historical themes.

Ismailova lives between Tashkent and Paris. Best known for video and sound works that combine personal and collective memories, she creates installations which employ traditional Uzbek traditions that are in danger of disappearing. Fostering the continuity of these techniques becomes part of a multifaceted reflection on the concept of transmission, rendered even more relevant in Central Asia’s crossroads of cultures. In 2021, she founded DAVRA, a research group devoted to the documentation and dissemination of Central Asian culture and knowledge. The artist’s practice also delves into a wider range of topics, including the consequences of colonisation, mythology and the relation between nature and human activity.

A Seed Under Our Tongue draws its inspiration from an oral narrative about a date seed hidden under the tongue that passes through different ages and people, to the point of transforming itself into a walnut seed.

The transmission of memories, knowledge and stories is a key element to understanding the selection of works on view in Milan, as well as the exhibition’s title. A Seed Under Our Tongue draws inspiration from an oral narrative about a date seed hidden under the tongue that passes through different ages and people, to the point of transforming itself into a walnut seed. The video installation Stains of Oxus (2016) suggests a far more tragic kind of transformation, reflecting on the effects of the Soviet irrigation plans on the area surrounding Amu Darya (Oxus in ancient Greek), a tributary of the lake Aral. The banks of Amu Darya also appear in Ismailova’s new work Melted Into The Sun (2024), currently on view at the exhibition Nebula curated by Fondazione In Between Art and Film in Venice. Stains of Oxus is set in dialogue with Arslanbob (2023-24), a tribute to a walnut forest and the adjacent Sulaiman-Too Mountain, an ancient place of worship in southern Kyrgyzstan. Arlsanbob is also the name of the mythical character from which the legendary seed originally embarked on its path, and the physical presence of the same seed is evoked by the golden sculpture Amanat (2024). Both Stains of Oxus and Arslanbob are positioned within the exhibition layout designed by the Milan-based studio Grace, suggesting the vastness and sacrality of Central Asian landscapes.

Traditionally considered a messenger of the ancestors, the Turkestan tiger is the protagonist of The Haunted (2017). This animal became extinct in the early 1970s due to industrialisation and symbolised the cultural and environmental richness endangered by systems of control and power, such as the former Soviet regime. The Haunted is paired with 18,000 Worlds (2023), based on the 12th-century Persian philosopher al-Suhrawardi's belief that we live in one of the 18,000 worlds that make up the universe. Through the artist’s gaze, such belief becomes a metaphor of plurality and coexistence, while offering a perspective on the notion of resistance in the face of contemporary challenges. Cosmology is also a key theme in Chillahona (2022), the video and textile installation that first premiered at the Venice Art Biennale in 2022 (in the same year, Ismailova participated in documenta 15 in Kassel). In this work, Ismailova’s connection with her homeland takes on more distinctively haptic forms through a large palyak embroidery based on a drawing by the artist and executed by the artisan Madina Kasimbaeva. The palyak technique is typical of Tashkent, and its rigorous geometry contrasts with the chaos of the images of the film. As a response to this challenging past, the video component of Chillahona explores the eponymous Uzbek underground cells used for self-isolation and meditation.

Fibre and textile are recurring elements throughout the exhibition. In a new version of The Haunted, Ismailova reinterprets the Turkestan tiger’s eye from her 2017 film by transforming it into a silk bakhmal velour panel. In Talosh (2024), specially composed verses by the Uzbek poet Jontemir Jondor are projected on an 11-metre long woven horsehair panel: a technique that used to be employed for making chachvon women’s veils in major Uzbek cities during the early 20th century and was recently rediscovered by the artist. The use of these techniques and materials should not be misinterpreted as a series of merely folkloric quotations, but rather as an original reinterpretation in a dialogue with the development of new technologies. (In this regard, it might also be mentioned that the rediscovery of Uzbek textile heritage has recently been the core of Aziza Kadyri and Qizlar Collective’s project Don’t Miss The Cue for the Uzbekistan Pavilion at Venice Art Biennale 2024). In conclusion, the symbolic value of these textiles goes far beyond their original function and the layered history of Central Asia can now resurface through their weave.

‘A Seed Under Our Tongue’ runs at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan from September 12, 2024 - January 12, 2025.