Samarkand Archives - Nilufar Pulatova

“Limits of whatever form, provide an ideal context for innovation. When faced with obstacles or adversity, our efforts to overcome them hone our creativity and help us find solutions to global problems”

Writing on a wall, Expo 2016, Italian pavilion

You know how we, the humans, are finally realizing a mass damage we are creating by our mass production and are going back to eating local and using local materials?

I have been pondering on these thoughts for some time and while visiting Bukhara and Samarkand I saw how a basic construction material such as brick could be used in so many versatile ways as both a building material and a decoration material. These images are a mix from 9th century architecture to newly renovated / built buildings. The key is – you have a basic brick and it is only human creativity and skills that turned it into something spectacular.

This is how the shape of the old brick – square! Chorbakr necropolis.

Samanid mausoleum – change of pavement in progress

I just returned from a week long trip to Bukhara and Samarkand. This was an early birthday present from my parents – thank you, mama and papa!

I don’t remember the number of times I have been to these cities, however, every time I re-visit them I feel like I have matured and I find things I did not even notice before.

This time in Samarkand I came across a mosaic shop set up in a famous Registan square. By the entrance door, on a stool covered with a newspaper, they had a mosaic tile. When I touched the tile the mosaic pieces separated and that’s when I realized that it is a real thing!

I walked into the shop where I received a quick intro into mosaic tiles making. The process itself sounds simple and straightforward but its application is a very detailed tedious work.