Aziza: Craft is often considered less prestigious than fine art, while state cultural policies often emphasize craft because it is familiar to many people. In my work, I aim to challenge and dismantle this division between fine art and craft — an artificial hierarchy that does not apply to the art of Central Asia.

​

While working on a project for the Uzbekistan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024, I spent a lot of time speaking with men who run textile factories. The master artisans who design the beautiful adras fabrics in Margilan are almost always men, though the actual weaving is done by women. There is a similar trend in other crafts such as ceramics, where renowned artisans tend to come from dynasties of male craftsmen. Though crafts are often perceived as a women’s domain, it is men who receive recognition. In patriarchal structures, a man can be acknowledged as an artist, while a woman often cannot. When it comes to well-known women in these fields, one of the few names that comes to mind is Madina Kasymbayeva, with whom I collaborated on the project for the Pavilion.

Madina is Uzbekistan’s most successful suzani (silk or cotton) embroiderer, and she now has the resources to employ women as apprentices — often those from disadvantaged backgrounds or difficult circumstances. She says that embroidery requires a particular state of mind. Around twenty people, not including Madina and myself, worked on the blue curtain (part of the installation) presented at the Uzbekistan Pavilion. The project brought together different women who were initially hesitant to participate because it involved patchwork rather than the embroidery they were accustomed to. But over time, it became a reason for them to gather, share news, gossip, and recite duas (prayers) — to exist together in that space. I like to believe they wove their emotions and stories into the fabric. They had agency in this work — the design was slightly altered, and they contributed to selecting the fabrics.